Today, March 4, is a very important day in the nearly 200 year old history of this hill station. It has a connection with Christ Church, one of the most beautiful churches in the country.
Not many of the people who visit this church, however, know that this is the oldest Himalayan church and has an interesting history the beginnings of which go back to April 1836. The idea of setting up a Himalayan Church in this hill town was conceived then and began to take shape. The beautiful huge deodar tree one sees in the churchyard is very special. The plaque on the railing reminds the visitor:
'This tree was planted by H.R.H. the princess of wales on sunday march 4th 1906 after attending morning service at christ church' This was Her Royal Highness Mary of Teck, who visited Mussoorie as part of a grand tour of India with the Prince of Wales. In 1920, he became George V. This tree, planted on March 4, 108 years ago, adds to the beauty of the church.
This house of worship stands as a wondrous tribute to the religious concerns of those early founders of the town. By 1835, the European population in Mussoorie was large enough to warrant the building of a church. Soon, the residents settled for a site on a hump above Kulri. Mussoorie-based author and academician Ganesh Saili has given a detailed account of this in his book, Mussoorie Medley.
“Objections came from John. Mackinnon, the brewer, already a leading man in the hill-station owing to his energy and public spirit who felt that the Kulri Hill near Zephyr Hall would be too far a walk for his charges. He proposed that the new Church of England should be out to the west of the station. A compromise was affected between all the parties and the present site just above the Mall was chosen,” writes Saili.
“It will be the first church raised amidst the eternal snows of Upper India,” gushed the lord Bishop of Calcutta and First Metropolitan of India, in 1836. In a book entitled The life of the Right. Rev. Daniel Wilson, D.D., late lord Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India by Rev. Josiah Bateman, london, published by John Murray in 1860, we are told that there was neither chaplain nor church when the Bishop entered Mussoorie, but he was a man of firm belief who seldom left a place as he found it!