Salvation Corners

Owen Sound, Ontario, has an intersection on which a church sits on each of its four corners.

Owen Sound is an up-and-coming Canadian city on the southern shore of Georgian Bay. It has a magnificent harbor and bay, two winding rivers, tree-lined streets, an extensive parks system and numerous recreational facilities, all set among tree-covered hillsides and ravines. Its refurbished downtown is reminiscent of the 1900s, and it's a pleasant place to live.

Visitors to Owen Sound sometimes acquaint themselves with the city and its history by taking one of the mapped walking tours arranged by the city's tourism board. One of these tours is the "Salvation Corners Route," so named because it takes walkers to the intersection of Tenth Street and Fourth Avenue East where there's a splendid limestone church on each of the four corners. The intersection of Tenth Street and Third Avenue East, however, has been dubbed "Damnation Corners" after the four hotels -- perhaps of dubious reputation -- that once dominated that intersection.

While Homiletics is not in the business of promoting...