Basil's Church, purchased 50-acres of what was then remote farmland on St. Clair Avenue West.

On May 8, 1892, the cornerstone was laid for the novitiate and a chapel to serve as a parish church for the Irish population in the area.

Michael Oliver was appointed priest and instructed to oversee the construction of a new church.

The church was designed by prominent Toronto-based Catholic architect Arthur William Holmes.

[1][2] The first stained glass windows were dedicated in 1928 in memory of John Franklin Brown Jr., a parishioner who died in the First World War.