Kent Town Wesley Uniting Church built 1864 as Wesleyan Methodist, and the very beautiful organ. South Australia
Kent Town Wesley Uniting Church
Built 1864 as Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Tapley’s Hill bluestone construction.
Transepts added 1867, vestries & classrooms 1869, lecture Hall 1874.
Opening service July 1865. First Pastor Rev S Ironside.
Church pioneers include Michael Kingsborough, Mayor 1870–71.
Originally Collegiate Church of Prince Alfred College.
*Ref: plaque by Kensington & Norwood Historical Society Inc. August 1994.
Kent Town was named after pioneer settler, Dr Benjamin Kent MD, who established East Park Farm in 1840 on Section 255 on land leased from Colonel Torrens. However, due to a dispute over ownership it was not subdivided until 1854 following Charles Robin’s purchase of the section. A mere two kilometres east of the city, Kent Town was the largest and most expensive sale of land in the colony and the close proximity made it a desirable residential area for prosperous merchants, enterprising businessmen and for many influential Wesleyan Methodists.
The reformist Wesleyan Methodists were part of South Australia’s great experiment in social democracy which fostered religious freedom and cultivated a ‘Paradise of Dissent’ that challenged the supremacy and authority of Anglicanism. A leading member of the community, Sir John Colton purchased three blocks at the corner of Kent Town and Grenfell Street on which to build a grand church to mark the 1864 jubilee of the Wesleyan Missionary Society and to be a symbol of Wesleyan achievement in the new province.
Prominent Wesleyans such as Francis Faulding of the pharmaceutical business, George P Harris, founder of Harris Scarf & Co, merchants Thomas & William Rhodes and W T Flint, insurance agent Thomas Padman, land agent George Cotton, importer Michael Kingsborough and local vigneron William Clarke donated money to the building of the church. An important benefactor was the wealthy mining investor and founding director of the Bank of Adelaide, Thomas Greaves Waterhouse, whose charismatic conversion to Wesleyan Methodism came after he married Eliza Faulding in 1852.
London trained architects, Edmund Wright (1824–1888) and Edward Woods (1837–1913) were commissioned to design the new church described as ‘English Gothic’ in style. Their design reflected the preoccupation with medieval forms and the devotion to ‘uplifting the spirit’ and the primacy of preaching in Methodism with its magnificent central pulpit. The church was constructed with a steeply pitched roof, pinnacles, arched window tracery, wall buttresses and an imposing grand interior that gave it an aura of religious splendour.
On Sunday 6 August 1865, the nave of the new church was opened by the evangelist American preacher, Reverend William ‘California’ Taylor, with over 4000 people attending the celebratory service. In 1868, transepts and a schoolroom were added to the building. The Kent Town Jubilee Church could seat 1100 people for a service making it one of the largest in the State.
As rivalry between the Wesleyans and the Anglicans grew the idea of a Wesleyan College was considered to counter the influence of the Collegiate School of St Peter’s at Hackney. T G Waterhouse purchased the last section of undeveloped land in Kent Town for the purpose of building a school devoted to the education of young men. In November 1867, one of the greatest controversies to beset the province of South Australia occurred when His Royal Highness Prince Alfred was invited to lay the foundation stone of the new Dissenters’ School and to give permission for it to be named Prince Alfred College.
For over a century, the Jubilee Church had a special place in the hearts of generations of Methodist who were moved to action by great preachers and beliefs which challenged the mores of South Australian society.
Ref: Jubilee Church story board
Kent Town Wesley Uniting Church built 1864 as Wesleyan Methodist, and the very beautiful organ. South Australia
Kent Town Wesley Uniting Church
Built 1864 as Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Tapley’s Hill bluestone construction.
Transepts added 1867, vestries & classrooms 1869, lecture Hall 1874.
Opening service July 1865. First Pastor Rev S Ironside.
Church pioneers include Michael Kingsborough, Mayor 1870–71.
Originally Collegiate Church of Prince Alfred College.
*Ref: plaque by Kensington & Norwood Historical Society Inc. August 1994.
Kent Town was named after pioneer settler, Dr Benjamin Kent MD, who established East Park Farm in 1840 on Section 255 on land leased from Colonel Torrens. However, due to a dispute over ownership it was not subdivided until 1854 following Charles Robin’s purchase of the section. A mere two kilometres east of the city, Kent Town was the largest and most expensive sale of land in the colony and the close proximity made it a desirable residential area for prosperous merchants, enterprising businessmen and for many influential Wesleyan Methodists.
The reformist Wesleyan Methodists were part of South Australia’s great experiment in social democracy which fostered religious freedom and cultivated a ‘Paradise of Dissent’ that challenged the supremacy and authority of Anglicanism. A leading member of the community, Sir John Colton purchased three blocks at the corner of Kent Town and Grenfell Street on which to build a grand church to mark the 1864 jubilee of the Wesleyan Missionary Society and to be a symbol of Wesleyan achievement in the new province.
Prominent Wesleyans such as Francis Faulding of the pharmaceutical business, George P Harris, founder of Harris Scarf & Co, merchants Thomas & William Rhodes and W T Flint, insurance agent Thomas Padman, land agent George Cotton, importer Michael Kingsborough and local vigneron William Clarke donated money to the building of the church. An important benefactor was the wealthy mining investor and founding director of the Bank of Adelaide, Thomas Greaves Waterhouse, whose charismatic conversion to Wesleyan Methodism came after he married Eliza Faulding in 1852.
London trained architects, Edmund Wright (1824–1888) and Edward Woods (1837–1913) were commissioned to design the new church described as ‘English Gothic’ in style. Their design reflected the preoccupation with medieval forms and the devotion to ‘uplifting the spirit’ and the primacy of preaching in Methodism with its magnificent central pulpit. The church was constructed with a steeply pitched roof, pinnacles, arched window tracery, wall buttresses and an imposing grand interior that gave it an aura of religious splendour.
On Sunday 6 August 1865, the nave of the new church was opened by the evangelist American preacher, Reverend William ‘California’ Taylor, with over 4000 people attending the celebratory service. In 1868, transepts and a schoolroom were added to the building. The Kent Town Jubilee Church could seat 1100 people for a service making it one of the largest in the State.
As rivalry between the Wesleyans and the Anglicans grew the idea of a Wesleyan College was considered to counter the influence of the Collegiate School of St Peter’s at Hackney. T G Waterhouse purchased the last section of undeveloped land in Kent Town for the purpose of building a school devoted to the education of young men. In November 1867, one of the greatest controversies to beset the province of South Australia occurred when His Royal Highness Prince Alfred was invited to lay the foundation stone of the new Dissenters’ School and to give permission for it to be named Prince Alfred College.
For over a century, the Jubilee Church had a special place in the hearts of generations of Methodist who were moved to action by great preachers and beliefs which challenged the mores of South Australian society.
Ref: Jubilee Church story board