Great news for housing, and for church reuse! Just one year later, Tal Dehtiar is back on the Spec front page with the news that his church apartments are ready to rent.
As reported last summer, Dehtiar was set to transform a designated church in Hamilton’s Stinson neighbourhood into 19 rental units. Hamilton lags behind other cities in reusing former church buildings as housing, which makes Dehtiar’s project the first residential church conversion for the old city of Hamilton.
St. Thomas Anglican was designed in 1869 by Albert H. Hills, the Hamilton architect behind MacNab Presbyterian, the former Centenary Methodist, and Trinity Lutheran. Like St. Giles and Wentworth Baptist, the former St. Thomas is in Ward 3, not far from Old Cathedral High School and the former Red Cross building.
The exterior of the former St. Thomas Anglican Church at 16 West. Ave. S. Tal Dehtiar has turned the 150-year-old building into rental apartments. Photo: Cathie Coward.Tal Dehtiar in the “altar suite” in the former St. Thomas Anglican Church on West Avenue South. This one-bedroom, two-storey rental unit includes the stained glass window that was behind the altar, as well as two other smaller stained glass windows from the original church. Photo: Cathie Coward.The “altar suite” at a former church on Hamilton’s West Avenue South. Tal Dehtiar has turned the 150-year-old stone building into rental apartments. Photo: Cathie Coward.Many of the rental suites at the former St. Thomas Anglican Church on West Avenue South include original stained glass windows. Photo: Cathie Coward.An interior hallway at 16 West. Ave. S. Photo: Cathie Coward.A view of the kitchen in one of the former church’s basement rental units. Photo: Cathie Coward.An exterior view of Tal Dehtiar’s rental apartment project at the former St. Thomas Anglican Church. Dormers were incorporated into the building to provide additional light in the two-storey units. Photo: Cathie Coward.
From Teviah Moro’sfront-page story, which highlights how adaptive reuse of the church helped provide a quick turnaround for the 19 apartments, and also the dozens of local jobs that the project brought to the neighbourhood:
When word spread that Tal Dehtiar planned to renovate a 150-year-old downtown church into apartments, a few skeptics came out of the woodwork.
He’d run into heritage hurdles. It didn’t compute financially. His timeline was unrealistic.
“Maybe ignorance is bliss, or whatever the expression is,” Dehtiar says.
But he has transformed the 14,000-square-foot stone church into 19 bright and airy units in less than a year — albeit two months or so beyond his original goal.
His aim was to preserve as many heritage elements of the building (originally built as St. Thomas Anglican) as possible.
The units — which range from bachelors to three-bedrooms — feature original trusses, stained-glass windows and arches.
“The great thing about churches is that they’re just open canvasses.”
Tal Dehtiar
Dehtiar credits the project’s success to a legion of small tradespeople, including designers, framers, electricians, plumbers and pavers.
“I did the math,” he said. “Like roughly, there were 145 hands that touched this property in the past year.”
Spectator print edition: “Leap of faith / An ‘open canvas’ now complete” (August 23, 2022, A1–2) | online: “Leap of faith: Hamilton church converted into apartments.”
The Hamilton Spectator (est. 1846) is published by Metroland Media Group, a division of Torstar.
Sarah Sheehan 