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The lot, vacant at the time, was owned by the Community Hall Association who had purchased it with the intention of building on it. However, when the second Boundary Bay School (located at the corner of 56th St and 16th Ave) was put up for sale, the organization sold the lot to the St. David's congregation and turned the school into a community hall.
An Anglican congregation had existed in South Delta since the early 1900s. Services had been held infrequently at the Boundary Bay School, sometimes not even once a month, more often in the summer, by the minister from All Saints Anglican in Ladner. Beginning in 1904 "upwards of one hundred campers and others" attended an open-air service in the afternoon.
The desire for this congregation to have a church of its own was longstanding, many parishioners feeling that the distance to Ladner prevented them from attending services as frequently as they would like. However, it took until the 1950s, when the population had sufficiently increased, for dedicated fundraising in the form of teas, baxaars, raffles, dinners, and auctions to begin.
One of the main supporters for a church in Tsawwassen was Rev. Selwyn Evans, a Welshman, who served the parish in the late 1940s. In his honour the parish chose the name, St. David, the patron saint of Wales, for the church. Another individual who deserves to be remembered for his many contributions and tireless dedication to this church was Reginald Baxter.
The first sod was turned in 1953 by Robert Smith but reliance on volunteer labour meant that dedication of the church didn't take place for another 1 1/2 years on November 20, 1954. First services were held on May 1954 in the church basement, which would later become the church hall. An addition in 1960 doubled the size of St. David's by adding a rector's room and a larger vestry. After St. David's became an independent parish in 1956 a house on 16th Avenue was purchased to provide a rectory for the minister and his family.
Development pressures and a growing congregation spelled the end of this building, which was replaced by a new church at 1115 51A Street. Sod turning took place in 1970 and the new building was consecrated in early January 1971.
The original building was out of place in the commercial development plan that was being proposed for this part of 56th Street. Fortunately, the church continued to have a useful life as an activity centre for the City of Delta, which bought it for $1 and had it moved further south to Winskill Park in late 1970.
St. David's Anglican Church was a very significant element in South Delta's history, being the first church in Tsawwassen and providing a hall in which many community functions, not just church related, were held. In addition, a committee out of St. David's organized and ran the St. David's Co-operative Kindergarten in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. It was described as being non-denominational, although held in the church basement, and the first teacher was Dorothy Kirkland, the wife of Ernest Kirkland, who lived on English Bluff Road.
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