No. 1639 - Latrobe - Church of Christ - Meeting House (1887 - 1892)
Latrobe is a large country town on the east bank of the River Mersey. The settlement was named after Charles LaTrobe, acting Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania in 1846-7. Until the River Mersey silted up Latrobe was an important port town. The first members of the Church of Christ, Richard Fairlam and his wife Eliza, arrived in Tasmania in 1865 and established a fellowship at Northdown, a rural area 12 kilometres North-east of Latrobe. Initially Fairlam’s followers simply called themselves the “Christians”. They were later known as the "Disciples of Christ” and after 1885 became the ‘Church of Christ’. Fairlam moved to Latrobe in 1872 where he established a new fellowship. Although the fellowship at Northdown ended, a new fellowship was established at New Ground and a Christian Meeting House was built there in 1880. [ see No. 1084 ] This predates the Meeting House built at Latrobe in 1887. Latrobe’s Meeting House was situated on Gilbert Street, alongside the Fairlam’s house (close to...