No. 379 - St Stephen's Presbyterian Church at Glen Dhu

-
In 1905 St Stephen’s Presbyterian church was built in South Launceston at the end of Wilson Street. The church remained in use until the 1950’s when the congregation relocated to a new church built in nearby Glen Dhu Street. The reason for this move is not known but it may have been prompted by land acquisitions for a new freeway; Launceston’s Southern Outlet. The proposed road effectively divided Wilson Street in half leaving the old church stranded in a cul-de-sac cut off from South Launceston.

The new Glen Dhu church opened in 1958. However, a decline in the size of the congregation and church amalgamations in the 1970’s resulted in St Stephen’s closure in 1985. The building was used for a time by the Assembly of God before it became the premises of Launceston Bridge Club.

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

The original Wilson Street church which has been converted into a house. Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018



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. 1205 - Hobart - All Saints' Anglican Church (1859) - "A perfect specimen of architecture"

-
Image
The landmark All Saints Anglican church on Macquarie Street, South Hobart, is the second church built on this site. Following the creation of the All Saints parish in 1855, a ‘temporary church’, known as ‘All Saints chapel’, was erected as a place of worship until a permanent church could be built. [ see No. 575 ] In 1858 construction began on a new church. It was of an early English Gothic design by architect Henry Hunter. The building’s foundation stone was ceremonially laid on Thursday 2 December 1858: “The ceremony of laying the first stone of the Church proposed to be erected in the Upper part of Macquarie-street took place, as announced in the Courier of yesterday, at three o'clock in the afternoon. The ceremony was performed by His Excellency the Governor, attended by the Lord Bishop of Tasmania, in the presence of a large number of ladies and gentlemen, ….The parish of All Saints, which was formerly included in St. George's parish, is fast increasing in population, par
Read more

No. 598 - Lawitta - The Back River Methodist Chapel

-
Image
Back River is an area close to New Norfolk that includes the ‘suburbs’ of Lawitta and parts of Gretna. The Back River rises on the western side of Mount Dromedary and flows into the Derwent River about 2 kilometres west of New Norfolk. The area was settled by small landholders who had been moved from Norfolk Island and were given allotments between New Norfolk and Back River. The Wesleyan-Methodist church at Back River is one of the oldest in Tasmania and its opening in 1837 coincides with the start of Queen Victoria’s reign. The reach of the Methodist Church first extended to the Back River district in 1820 with lay-preacher Samuel Dowsett conducting a service in one of the settler’s homes. In the following year Rev. William Horton, who was resident Methodist minister in Hobart Town, extended his ministry to the Derwent Valley, and he occasionally visited Back River. Reverend Nathaniel Turner, who was on his way to New Zealand in 1822, and was detained In Hobart Town owing to the Ma
Read more