SITE OF ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH

Author

City of Fremantle

Place Number

21071

Location

2 Josephson St Fremantle

Location Details

Local Government

Fremantle

Region

Metropolitan

Construction Date

Constructed from 1909

Demolition Year

2003

Statutory Heritage Listings

Type Status Date Documents
Heritage List YES 08 Mar 2007

Heritage Council Decisions and Deliberations

Type Status Date Documents
(no listings)

Other Heritage Listings and Surveys

Type Status Date Grading/Management
Category
Municipal Inventory Adopted 18 Sep 2000 Historic/Archaeological Site

Statement of Significance

Site of St Paul Lutheran Church (1909), 2 Josephson Street, demolished c2003, is significant as a site because of its social and religious connections with the local church community. It is representative of the diverse and changing spiritual life in the North Fremantle community.

History

The Lutheran Church began in Western Australia in 1901 when Pastor Edwin Fischer was sent from the east to establish a congregation. He purchased a site at the corner of Ellen and Josephson Streets in 1909 and had a church constructed. St Paul’s Lutheran Chapel Fremantle was dedicated on 6 February 1910, joining congregations at Perth, Kalgoorlie, Wagin, Katanning and Albany. Prior to the church being built worship services had been held in a theatre, the Masonic Hall, the Oddfellows Hall and the Rechabite Hall. Pastor Fischer described the new building as ‘strong and massive, plain and well-executed, fitting and suitable for our mission work’. Artwork above the altar was donated by the Perth congregation. The pastor and organist travelled to Fremantle after morning services in Perth, leading an afternoon service in German and an evening service in English. The strong German character of the Lutheran congregations meant they were suffered from the anti-German sentiments in the community during World War One. Congregations at Kalgoorlie and Albany closed as a result of the war, and the Fremantle chapel was vandalised. In 1911 there had been 2,036 German-born people in the state, together with 400 Austrians, 100 Swiss, and 500 Australian-born Lutherans. By 1933 only 996 German-born people were listed in the state, despite significant population growth over the intervening period. A photograph from the 1920s or 1930s shows St Paul Lutheran Church (2 Josephson Street), with its front façade facing north to address Ellen Street. A brick porch entrance masks the front door. A low brick fence wraps the perimeter of the property. The Fremantle Lutheran congregation eventually sold the church for £625 in 1929, with money from the sale going towards the construction of a new church at Perth in the 1930s. Services in members’ homes continued in Fremantle for a few years. The church building was purchased by Joyce Brothers, who operated the adjacent factory, and occupied by the Plymouth Brethren, who continued to use the place into the 1940s. By 1951 no church building is listed on the site in Council rate books. However, a 1952 plan shows the building with its front porch apparently as shown in the earlier photograph described above. The place was sold along with the adjacent factory to Adams Electric Pty Ltd in 1952, electrical and refrigeration engineers. In 1972, Fremantle Council moved to compulsorily acquire Adams Electric’s land holdings at the corner of Ellen and Josephson Streets, in order to allow for street widening. A report at the time noted that the former church was of brick, approximately 26x14 feet, with corrugated iron roof and concrete floors. It was in poor condition and used for storage. It was identified for demolition as it was within the new road reserve. However, a 1984 photograph shows the church building remaining, with large banner advertising for Adams Electric across its north gable and a high wall around the property boundary hiding the bulk of the building. The street widening proposed in the 1970s does not appear to have gone ahead. Fremantle Council approved plans in June 1989 for the restoration and redevelopment of the former church building, as part of redevelopment of the entire site. The owner was still Adams Electric but the applicant for the development was J. Detheridge & co. Photographs from May 1989 show the place still occupied by Adams Electric. The perimeter wall has been removed. Skillion verandahs wrap both street elevations and the east elevation, and the adjacent workshop abuts the south elevation. A glass entrance door is across the truncated Ellen/ Josephson Streets corner of the building, which is an addition beyond the original footprint of the church, featuring display windows as for a showroom along Josephson Street and higher windows as for an office to Ellen Street. Windows to the east elevation are four-paned and appear to match those shown on the 1952 plan. Aerial photographs continue to show the church up to 2003, when they show the lot recently cleared. An apartment complex and retail/ studio space has since been constructed on the lot, numbered as 1 Ellen Street.

Creation Date

20 Jul 2011

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Approved

Last Update

22 Mar 2019

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.