Mount Carmel Bible School
A Mini-History of a Building and Its Place in Edmonton
Mount Carmel Bible School is a one-year Christian training program located in Edmonton. I’ve wanted to write about the history of Mount Carmel (also called Mount Carmel Bible College) for a long time. In 2018, I co-edited a history about the school written by former faculty member, Ted McKellar, called 50 Years of God’s Faithfulness.1 What I’m interested in for this post, though, is the history of the building itself.
Throughout my life, this building has been sort of ever-present. My parents attended the school together in the late 1970s and got married shortly thereafter. The church I grew up going to from the age of 5 met in the building for years. My wife and I attended there as students (in 1999 and 2003) and have also both served on the board for the school. Our eldest son is going to be attending this fall. The church plant that we are part of now also meets in the building. Other than the houses I’ve lived in and the offices I’ve worked in, I’m not sure there is a building that I have been around more.
Like so many things, though, we often take for granted that which is most familiar. I’m interested here in digging into the building’s roots. How did it come to be occupied by the school? What was using the building before the school came to be there (and who)? What was on the land before the building was built?
Before Carmel was Carmel
The now-blue building situated on the near-acre lot at 4725-106 Avenue in the Gold Bar neighbourhood in Edmonton was built in 1958. Its original purpose was to serve as the site of Gold Bar Baptist Church.
Gold Bar Baptist started its life as a house church called Hardisty-Fulton Place Baptist (later just Fulton Place Baptist Church). It met in the basement of its first pastor, Reverend Malcolm Van Antwerp. Reverend Van Antwerp trained at Moody Bible Institute and then Bethel Seminary.2 The church was planted in 1957 by the Baptist General Conference denomination, which was a group of Swedish Baptists that got its start in Canada around 1910.
The plan for this Baptist church was always to build a building – all of the newspaper advertisements for its church services from the time indicate that their basement location is temporary. An architectural firm appears therefore to have been selected at approximately the same time as the church getting its start. It was a brand-new firm, founded only a year earlier, comprising two architects, Peter Hemingway and Charles Laubenthal. These men were to become prominent and important architects in the history of Edmonton. Peter Hemingway, in particular, went on to great acclaim as the architect of Coronation Pool (later renamed in his honour), Central Pentecostal Tabernacle, and – most famous of all – the City of Edmonton’s signature Muttart Conservatory. (One wonders at Mount Carmel’s lack of pyramids, since both the original Central Pentecostal and the Muttart feature these prominently). By April 1958, a building permit for the church had been approved. By October 1958, a notice appeared in the Edmonton Journal that the house church would soon be moving into its new building and getting a new name as well.
In July 1959, a new pastor was installed at Gold Bar Baptist: Reverend Earl Phillips. Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Reverend Phillips had been pastoring in Winnipeg for the previous 14 years at Bethany Baptist Church (later called Waverley Church). For the next decade, Reverend Phillips oversaw the church’s growth, including the building’s use as a kindergarten for the Hardisty, Gold Bar, and Ottewell neighbourhoods from 1961 to 1972. At the time, kindergartens were mostly operated privately rather than being included as offerings by public schools. Around 1971, the notice for church services shows that a new pastor has been installed named Len Johnson.
In 1973, Mount Carmel Bible School acquired the building. Founded in 1968, the school had until that point been renting space at Bethel Gospel Chapel for classes, offices, and library. I’ve tried to track down the exact events that led to this acquisition, but despite skimming through almost 50 issues of Letters of Interest (an important Brethren magazine, which Carmel advertised in regularly during this time, and which was featured in its pages in the September 1972 issue), I have not found a written account of the story. I’ll add a postscript to this post if I find something.
Very quickly it was apparent that the building would need some work to make it truly functional for the school’s needs. Starting in 1976, obituaries began to appear suggesting that, in lieu of flowers, donations could be made to the Mount Carmel Bible School building fund. These donations would ultimately culminate with the issuance of a building permit in 1978 for Mount Carmel to undertake renovations and an expansion. W. J. Bennett Contractors undertook the work, which was valued at $50,000, and consisted of the additions along the western side of the school, including the offices, the library, and the lounge and kitchen in the basement.
There have been several other changes to the building since this time: kitchen alterations, lounge expansions, significant structural shifts in wall placement, ramps added and removed, etc. The exterior was fully updated about fifteen years ago. The roof was redone recently as well. Each of these updates (both the obvious ones and the ones that took a lot of work, but aren’t as overt) involved an incredible amount of work by staff and volunteers as well as generous support from donors. This building has been a labour of love for many, many people.
In addition to the stories of building improvement, there are also many stories of the ways the building has been used by renters and groups within the wider Carmel community, including youth groups, ESL training groups, film clubs, conferences, church planting organizations, lectures, churches (like ours), and many more. In my opinion, this non-school usage is essential to the school’s ongoing network and community. Growing up wandering the halls of the school contributed to me wanting to attend as a student and, later, to keep participating in its work as a ministry.
The Ground Beneath [Mount Carmel’s] Feet
There is a lot more history to be told about the land beneath this school too. For example, before Gold Bar Baptist became Mount Carmel Bible School, the land beneath the school was part of a farm owned by Claude Gallinger, who used the hundreds of acres that made up the area once known as Gold Bar Farm to graze his famous shorthorn cattle. Even earlier than that, the land was known as River Lot #39. Its earliest inhabitant of record, John Borwick, was a Métis man whose father was the blacksmith in Fort Edmonton and father-in-law was the famous trapper and author of Buffalo Days and Nights, Peter Erasmus.
I’ve got a much longer post that I will be circulating soon that details out the history of the wider neighbourhood. For now, perhaps it suffices to say that there’s always a lot more going on when we look into the story of a place! Digging deeper is always worth it.
(N.B. The above video is taken from the Mount Carmel Bible College website.)
Copies of this book can be obtained from Mount Carmel Bible School, or by sending me a note.
Reverend Van Antwerp led a very interesting life, as described in his obituary: “Rev. Malcolm Elmer Van Antwerp, age 97, died peacefully Thursday, June 1, 2017, at Taylor House Hospice in Des Moines, after a brief illness. Malcolm was born November 23, 1919, in Michigan, to Elmer and Margaret (Glen) Van Antwerp in their farmhouse near Tustin, Michigan. He was raised on the farm then left to attend Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. There he met Emily McClean; they married in 1942 after graduating. Malcolm’s life was his family and the church. With Emily’s steadfast support, he completed degrees at Bethel College and Seminary and Luther Seminary in Minnesota. In 1970, he became pastor at Galilee Baptist Church until his retirement in 1984. Malcolm’s drive to serve and study never diminished; after retiring he earned a Doctorate in Ministry and worked as interim pastor for fifteen churches in Iowa. Emily died in 1991, and Malcolm married Banetah Street, a widow, in 1993. In 1942, the newlyweds moved to Munising in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They started and built a church that thrives today, Munising Baptist Church. Malcolm worked on the team that pulled out stumps, hauled logs to the mill, and even made cement blocks for the new church. Their first child, Deborah, was born in 1944. In the early 1960’s, Pastor Van sold World Book Encyclopedias. He achieved Top Salesman status in the Minnesota-North Dakota sales territory. However, he declined an offer as a high-level sales manager with Field Enterprises, in favor of returning to the ministry. Malcolm and Emily appreciated music. There was always a record collection and a record player in the house. Their children began instrumental music lessons in grade school; concerts were never missed. They, at times, had symphony series tickets. Malcolm enjoyed travels throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Israel. He drove his family to most of the 48 states, pitching a tent in the evening. He and Emily hosted groups of friends and family to tour Israel. They visited their son Tom when he was teaching in Japan. Banetah and Malcolm travelled by car to Alaska and Newfoundland.”
I had no idea you had started this but I’m now subscribed.