Baptist Church & Hall

Statement of Significance

The place is a demonstration of an adaptation of English design built to suit local conditions, materials and building methods. The place has historic value as a demonstration of the development that occurred in Wagin around the turn-of-the-century as it became the service centre of the district.

Physical Description

Entrance to the church is via a paved path framed by piers with a rock-faced and rendered boundary wall with cast-iron balustrading. A belfry is on the east side of the church. The church building is 'L'-shaped in plan with a nave with an entrance porch, and an east vestry. The nave is unconventionally orientated north-south. The walls of the building are coursed, random rubble stone with rendered quoins. The building is covered with a high-pitched gable roof. An iron cross decorates the roof at each apex. The gable walls have cement rendered copings. The roof lacks ornamentation other than the detail at the base of the copings, the walls corbel out at the top to support the gable ends. A porch breaks the simplicity of the street facade. Covered with a flat roof, the porch features a small lancet to the front elevation containing leaded and stained glass, and rendered dentils that support the cornice. Above the porch in the gable wall are three small lancets joined by the rendered quoining and decorative sill moulding. The nave consists of seven recessed lancets, four on the west elevation and three on the east. The lancets contain aluminium window sections with textured and coloured glass. The windows are defined by rendered reveals, sills and surrounds. Entrance to the transept is on the north elevation. The east elevation features two lancets joined by rendered quoining and decorative sill moulding, and a circular accent in the gable end. The lancets contain leaded and stained glass in a geometric pattern. Two single-storey brick additions extend the rear of the building. The earlier addition has double-hung sash windows and doorway. The later addition has aluminium framed windows and door. A section of the wall of the east elevation of the porch has been over-rendered.

History

The first Sunday service was conducted in August 1898, in the former Agricultural Hall. In March 1902, the foundation stone was laid by Mrs J. A. Richards and it was opened without the porch and vestries which were added later. In 1948, the choir platform in the church was altered and enlarged, with a new baptistery arranged in the platform. The Baptist Church celebrated its jubilee in 1949. In 1951, the Norring church building which had served the people of that district for many years, was dismantled and re-erected at the rear of the central church, as a young people's hall.1

Integrity/Authenticity

INTEGRITY: High AUTHENTICITY: High

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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