No. 1103 - Launceston - Chalmers' Hall (1928)

-
This entry is another in a series of articles concerning buildings associated with some of Tasmania’s most significant churches. These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and are rarely featured in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of some of the most significant of these buildings, including some which no longer exist.

Launceston’s iconic and much photographed Chalmers’ Presbyterian church has a lessor known but equally striking companion, the Chalmers Hall, which is located diagonally opposite the church. For many years it served as a parish hall and a Sunday school.

The hall’s foundation stone was laid on Thursday 22 December 1927 by Mr David Storrer, a former mayor of Launceston and member of the House of Assembly. The Launceston Examiner reported on the occasion and provided details of the building features:

“Designed by the well known Launceston architect, Mr. Thomas Tandy, the hall will be of brick construction, with a length of 72 feet… and breadth of 35t feet. The front of the building, which will be in St. John-street opposite to the church, will be carried out In brickwork with cement trimmings and a wide entrance will be a feature of the front portion. A platform 35 feet by 13 feet will be erected at the opposite end of the hall. The building will contain also two large social rooms, each 20 feet by 10 feet, and a kitchen….The erection of such a hall has been contemplated for some time past by the management of Chalmers Church, and when completed the hall will be no doubt a great asset to both church and city…”.

The hall was completed in April in the following year. It was officially opened and dedicated by Reverend W.C. Jones on Sunday 29 April 1928.


A plan of the hall published in The Examiner


A plan of the hall published in The Examiner


Sources:

Daily Telegraph, Friday 23 December 1927, page 17
Examiner, Friday 23 December 1927, page 3
Examiner, Friday 23 December 1927, page 11
Mercury, Monday 30 April 1928, page 3
Examiner, Wednesday 2 May 1928, page 10

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