No. 44 - The Independent Church and Price Memorial Hall Launceston - All Gone but for the Garden

-
This is a story about a church that no longer exists. All that remains is a garden and a hall which also had a life as a Sunday school and a theatre. The Independent Church (built 1836) was demolished in 1920 and is now the site of the Dutch Garden in Launceston City Park which lies next to the Price Memorial Hall (built 1896 as a Sunday School). The hall is now the Tasmanian Design Centre but it also had a previous life as a theatre. 

  The founder of the Independent church, the Reverend Charles Price was a remarkable man, and he is associated with the founding of two other churches in the city, which will be investigated in later blog histories.

I have used an article from the Examiner in 1920, the year in which the church was demolished, as it sums up its history fairly comprehensively. The photos which accompany this blog entry show the beautiful Price Memorial Hall, the Dutch Gardens occupying the site of the former church and a photograph of Price's original Independent Church.

Demolishing an Old Church
A link with the early days of Launceston is shortly to be removed, the committee of the city council having decided that the old Independent Church, near the entrance to the City Park in Tamar-street, should be demolished. However the building is to be utilised for the last time as a place where visitors to Launceston on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales on June 23 may obtain refreshments. Then the 83-year-old walls will be razed to the ground. The property was purchased some time ago by the city council, and tenders invited for the lease of it, but none were received. The land will prove an addition to the City Park. There is an interesting history attached to this old building. The Rev. Charles Price arrived in Launceston in September 1832, and preached his first sermon in the Courthouse, which was then situated where the Post Office now stands. His congregation numbered so few that Mr Price decided to go to Sydney, but in 1836 he returned, and succeeded in obtaining a grant of a quarter of an acre of land in Tamar-street to erect the church, which still stands. While in Hobart he collected £180 towards the project. Mr Price then rented a brick house in St. John-street, opposite the Quadrant where he held services for a time but afterwards obtained the use of the Government School House (subsequently used as Trinity school-room), in Cameron-street. In September 1837, the Tamar-street church was opened for public worship. The total cost of the building, which combined within its walls a chapel, school, and ministers residence, was £1300. Mr Henry Reed, of Launceston, and the Hon. W. P. Weston, of Longford, each contributed £100 to towards the costs while for 14 years Mr Price preached gratuitously, devoting all the offerings towards paying off the debt, and at the same time opened a grammar school as a means of support for himself and family. In 1848 he built at his own expense the little Wycliffe chapel in Vincent-street, off St. John-street and ten years later induced his Tamar-street adherents to erect a chapel at Inveresk. In 1891, after being pastor of Tamar Street Church for 55 years, Mr Price died. In 1896 the Price Memorial Hall was erected beside the old church, which was then used for Sunday school purposes until a few years ago.

(The Examiner 21 May 1920)

The Price Memorial Hall which is attached to the award winning Tasmanian Design Centre (photo: Duncan Grant 2018)

Detail of the Memorial Hall Facade (Photo: Duncan Grant 2018)

Detail of a stained glass window on the East side of the Memorial Hall (Photo: Duncan Grant 2018)

Memorial plaque on the fence of the Dutch Gardens at City Park Launceston (Photo: Duncan Grant 2018)

The Dutch Garden today with the Price Memorial Hall to the left. Photo: Duncan Grant 2018

The Gardens as they looked soon after their establishment Source: LINC Tasmania LPIC147-4-00141

Independent Chapel Tamar Street circa 1890's  source: QVMAG 1999:P:1231

Source:

The Examiner 21 May 1920

Other sources of interest on the Hall and Church

Monuments & Monkeys: a walk in historic City Park Independent Congregational Chapel & Price Memorial Hall by Sue McClarron

From Chapel to Church: Nonconformist Building in Launceston Dr Eric Ratcliff

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Churches of Tasmania

-
Image
I love history and photography and also have an interest in architecture. When I started this blog in 2017 I had the goal of photographing every historical church in Tasmania. This was initially driven by the proposed mass sell-off of Anglican churches. I was concerned that these buildings would be modified and no longer be accessible once in private hands. As the years have passed this goal has changed to writing short histories of each and every church built in Tasmania, of which there are about 1600.   My earliest posts are rather amateurish but my research and writing has improved somewhat over the years.  In time my hope is to revise and update every article to a publishable standard. I have received an overwhelming amount of material from followers of the blog and I will incorporate this into the articles in the revision phase. Eventually I hope to publish the best of the articles. At present the blog attracts about 1000 views per day and I hope that this will continue to grow. 
Read more

No. 624 - Dunalley - St Martin's Anglican Church - "In grateful memory of the men who fought in the Great War"

-
Image
Dunalley is village on the Arthur Highway approximately 60 kilometres east of Hobart. It stands on the narrow isthmus connected to the Forestier Peninsula. The Denison Canal runs through the village and connects Blackman Bay and Fredrick Henry Bay. Dunalley was badly affected by bushfires in January 2013 with the town losing over 60 buildings including the Police Station and school. St Martin’s is the only public building left standing after the fires. St Martin’s Anglican has recently featured in the news following its sale. It is one of over 50 churches to be sold to meet the Anglican Church’s commitment to the National Redress Scheme. St Martin’s is an unusual church into two respects. Firstly, it is constructed from stone from the former Government stores at the old Coal Mines penal station at Saltwater River, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Secondly, the church was built as a memorial to the men of the district who fought and died in the Great War. As such, the buildin
Read more

No. 592 - Gretna - St Mary the Virgin - "Worthy of Imitation"

-
Image
Gretna is a small township in the Derwent Valley approximately 60 kilometres from Hobart. The area was originally known as Stony Plains Hut and Macquarie Plains. The name Gretna was adopted in the early 20th century. The origin of this name comes from a local farm called ‘Gretna Green’ and also an Inn established in the 1860’s which bore the same name. Another Inn, the Woolpack Inn, was the scene of a gunfight between the bushranger Martin Cash and members of the local constabulary. Gretna’s only church stood a few hundred metres from the inn and Cash and his gang hid in the bush near the church until nightfall prior to raiding the Inn. For many years St Mary’s was known as “The Woolpack Church”. St Mary’s the Virgin was built in 1847 and was opened and consecrated by Bishop Nixon on 1 June 1848. At the service, Edward Terry, the owner of Askrigg estate presented the deed of land on which the church was built to Bishop Nixon. Before the church was erected it is believed that Anglican s
Read more