St Kilda Parish Mission Uniting Church
(formerly the Wesleyan Church)
Corner Chapel and Carlisle Streets, St Kilda
In the 1870s, some people living in south St Kilda decided they wanted their own local Wesleyan church. Despite the opposition of some people living close to the St Kilda Wesleyan Church in Fitzroy Street, who feared the new church would be a drain on their church’s finances, fundraising began in July 1876 and a contract to build the church was signed on 22 December 1876. The position of the building was marked out on Christmas Day. The land had been reserved for a church in 1859 through the efforts and foresight of the Reverend Draper.
The architects were Crouch and Wilson. Crouch lived nearby on the other side of the railway line and was a long-serving trustee. He and his wife were commemorated in a 1950 stained-glass window. The polychromatic Gothic church with hawthorn face bricks and red and cream facings and a slate roof was opened on 23 May 1877. The cost of building was about £1060 and about half this amount had been raised when it opened. Built to accommodate 220 people, fifty-eight seats were taken when the church opened.[1] The turret measures 29 metres and is topped by an ornamental vane and is considered a local landmark. The stained-glass windows are by Ferguson & Wise. Inside, the main feature is the diagonal trusses at each corner of the junction of the nave and transepts, added in 1885 when the church was enlarged.[2] A side pulpit and solid screen across the sanctuary were added in 1938.
The 1891 two-manual organ of nine stops was built by Fincham and Hobday. It was classified of local significance by the National Trust of Australia in 1989. It ‘retains its mechanical action, detached console, tonal scheme, and attractive casework incorporating diapered pipework’.[3] It cost £235 and was never altered and is one of a small group of pipe organs in Melbourne in original condition.[4]
The congregation elected to join the Uniting Church in 1977 and the minister in 2002 is the Reverend John Tansey.
School
A school was built in 1879 and enlarged in 1887. A large brick room was later built for use as a kindergarten and classrooms.[5] It now operates as the St Kilda Drop In Centre for people with psychiatric disabilities. The Port Phillip Community Group, St Kilda Legal Services and Tenants Union have office space at this site.
[1] Bick, St Kilda Conservation Study, p. 611.
[2] Cooper, History of St Kilda, pp. 353-4.
[3] National Trust of Australia (Victoria), ‘Fincham & Hobday Organ — Uniting Church’, file number: B6113.
[4] Bick, St Kilda Conservation Study, pp. 609 and 611.
[5] Cooper, History of St Kilda, pp. 353-4.