Congregational Church (fmr)

Statement of Significance

• The site has historic value for its association with the first church in the district founded through the efforts of the local community. • The remaining elements from the building on display in the Belmont museum have historic value for their association with the church and the community it served from 1906. • The site has social and spiritual value for the members of the community who attended the church for spiritual or social reasons prior to its deconstruction in 1993.

Physical Description

No evidence of the former building on this site. Elements of the former building are on display in the Belmont Museum.

History

The land for the future Congregational Church was donated by Mrs Elizabeth Dorothea Bechtel in the early 1900s. Sunday services were held in Mrs Betchel’s home until enough money could be raised to erect a church. A rough survey of the district found that 31 households were interested in a church building. A successful fundraising campaign was mounted by a committee and a fete was held in the grounds of the secretary Mr H G Duncan's home. The foundation stone was laid and dedicated on 28 October 1905 by Reverend Ernest Davies and the Church was completed the following year. The main church building measured 41ft (13m) in length and 30ft (10m) in width and made of brick and iron, however the back wall was timber to allow for future extensions. The entrance porch was brick to dado height with a timber frame top. The church had double wooden entry doors which faced north. Inside, the church has pastered walls, hardwood floors and a domed ceiling made of pinewood with 6 metal rose centres from which the original kerosene lamps hung. There were eight coloured glass leadlight windows. A small weatherboard room was added across the back in later years, but preservation of this area was not sought (Source: Nomination Form for Register of the National Estate prepared by Mrs Anne Spalding). An opening service was held on Sunday 11th February 1906. It was the first ecclesiastical building in the Belmont Roads Board District. Services and Sunday school were then held there regularly. The preachers generally came by train and Mr Bechtel would collect them in his horse and cart and return them to the station in the evening. The Church was the only public building in the district and apart from Sunday Services, Sunday School, Youth Groups and Ladies Guild it was used for community events and as a polling place for State Elections. In the early days before moving pictures, magic lantern shows were a popular form of entertainment. As there was no school in the District, the Education Department used it for a primary school from February 1906 to the end of 1908 and then again in 1914 while the St Anne’s School was being extended. For almost four months, the Education Department rented the Church at the rate of £3 6s 8d per month. During World War One, the Burswood Red Cross used the Church regularly for ‘knitting scarves, mittens, socks, sewing pillow cases, hemming sheets and other items needed in hospitals, ambulances and for stretchers'. With continued growth of church membership, a wooden structure was built onto the back of the Church building to cope with the increasing numbers in the youth groups, boys’ and girls’ brigade and ladies club, including Country Women’s Association. The Church was also used as an infant health clinic until the 1950’s. The Church was closed in early 1990 and was dismantled in October 1993 due to the widening of Great Eastern Highway. The materials (3 pallets of bricks, window frames and stained glass windows) salvaged from the demolition were stored at Council’s Operations Centre. The new Belmont Museum within the Belmont Hub includes a display dedicated to the former Church with the restored stained glass windows and a reconstruction of a portion of a wall using the salvaged bricks.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: N/A Authenticity: N/A

Condition

N/A

Uses

Creation Date

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