Retreat House Belair. Originally for inebriates when built in 1883.
Inebriates Retreat, now St. John’s Grammar School.
This wonderful Gothic building has such a complex past it is difficult to determine its exact history! Its story is almost the story of Belair in a nutshell. The first probable settler, who also named Belair, lived on this site. Some rubble for his original cottage used to be visible just behind Retreat House. This was the site chosen by Gustav Ludewig and his French born wife Maria from Martinique. They leased this land from 1855 and built their cottage. Maria Ludewig started the first school at Belair in 1860 but she died a year later and was buried near the Ludewig cottage. A couple of years later Gustav’s second wife also died and she too was buried there. The graves have been lost over time. In 1877 after the passing of state legislation a public subscription raised funds for the opening of an Inebriates Retreat at Belair.
George Fife Angas gave the land (80 acres) to a group of trustees for the Inebriates House in 1874 and a further £1,500 for the building from himself and his son, John Howard Angas. But George Fife Angas died in 1879 and did not see the building completed. He had purchased land here in 1865. This original building was replaced with the present Gothic one in 1883 which was opened by the Governor of South Australia with much fanfare. It cost over £6,000 to construct and was able to accommodate 52 inmates. Reverend Morton a Presbyterian minister from Melbourne was a friend of John Howard Angas and he had visited Belair Inebriates Retreat in 1883 and then returned in 1893 to take charge of the facility. He called the institution Hope Lodge. But Morton’s main focus was the theological training of missionaries. John Howard Angas had donated money in the early 1870s for a Baptist theological college but it only operated for a year or two. But he had also established Angas College, a missionary training school, in North Adelaide. So Angas Missionary College started at Retreat House in 1893. It only operated here until 1898 for at that time Whinham College in Jeffcott Street North Adelaide closed and John Howard Angas got that site for the Angas College.
Back at Belair Reverend Morton had also established the Ladies Missionary College in 1895. So in the 1890s Retreat House housed inebriates and both male and female missionaries in training! The women’s Missionary Training College was transferred to Kensington in 1898 when the men went to North Adelaide. (Angas College closed when World War One started and that site became the Lutheran theological seminary and Immanuel College in 1921.) When the theological training was going well Reverend Morton took over the mortgage of the property himself in 1898 but it struggled financially. The inebriates had to pay to attend rehabilitation there.
In 1907 Rev Morton sold the property to Alexander Downer, generally known as George Downer for £3,000. George Downer was a brother to Sir John Downer the former SA Premier and one of the main writers of the Australian Constitution. Retreat House continued services for inebriates until 1914 when it closed at the same time as Kalyra Consumptive Home opened on another section of George Downer’s land. The building was then occupied off and on until 1941 when it was purchased by the Anglican Church as a religious camp and retreat centre.
Meantime the Anglican Bishop of Adelaide had established St. Barnabas Theological College in 1882 opposite the cathedral. It had moved around several suburbs before closing in 1950. Bishop Reed decided in the early 1960s to re-establish St. Barnabas College and it opened at Retreat House Belair in 1965. More classrooms, accommodation and houses for trainee priests were erected on the site. From 1979 St. Barnabas became part of an interdenominational consortium of theological training which awarded degrees in divinity through Flinders University. Eventually St. Barnabas closed as this consortium opened a joint theological college at Brooklyn Park in 1997(Anglican, Catholic and Uniting.) But the site was ideal for educational purposes with a chapel, classrooms, open areas for sports and general housing. The buildings were taken over by St. John’s Grammar School as their new secondary campus. St. John’s Grammar School was established in 1958 in the old Belair Primary School. It only had primary students then. The first secondary students started at the old Retreat House in 1998. Today St. John’s has around 1,000 students. So the building has gone from servicing inebriates to theologians to retreaters, to theologians and now to school students.
Retreat House Belair. Originally for inebriates when built in 1883.
Inebriates Retreat, now St. John’s Grammar School.
This wonderful Gothic building has such a complex past it is difficult to determine its exact history! Its story is almost the story of Belair in a nutshell. The first probable settler, who also named Belair, lived on this site. Some rubble for his original cottage used to be visible just behind Retreat House. This was the site chosen by Gustav Ludewig and his French born wife Maria from Martinique. They leased this land from 1855 and built their cottage. Maria Ludewig started the first school at Belair in 1860 but she died a year later and was buried near the Ludewig cottage. A couple of years later Gustav’s second wife also died and she too was buried there. The graves have been lost over time. In 1877 after the passing of state legislation a public subscription raised funds for the opening of an Inebriates Retreat at Belair.
George Fife Angas gave the land (80 acres) to a group of trustees for the Inebriates House in 1874 and a further £1,500 for the building from himself and his son, John Howard Angas. But George Fife Angas died in 1879 and did not see the building completed. He had purchased land here in 1865. This original building was replaced with the present Gothic one in 1883 which was opened by the Governor of South Australia with much fanfare. It cost over £6,000 to construct and was able to accommodate 52 inmates. Reverend Morton a Presbyterian minister from Melbourne was a friend of John Howard Angas and he had visited Belair Inebriates Retreat in 1883 and then returned in 1893 to take charge of the facility. He called the institution Hope Lodge. But Morton’s main focus was the theological training of missionaries. John Howard Angas had donated money in the early 1870s for a Baptist theological college but it only operated for a year or two. But he had also established Angas College, a missionary training school, in North Adelaide. So Angas Missionary College started at Retreat House in 1893. It only operated here until 1898 for at that time Whinham College in Jeffcott Street North Adelaide closed and John Howard Angas got that site for the Angas College.
Back at Belair Reverend Morton had also established the Ladies Missionary College in 1895. So in the 1890s Retreat House housed inebriates and both male and female missionaries in training! The women’s Missionary Training College was transferred to Kensington in 1898 when the men went to North Adelaide. (Angas College closed when World War One started and that site became the Lutheran theological seminary and Immanuel College in 1921.) When the theological training was going well Reverend Morton took over the mortgage of the property himself in 1898 but it struggled financially. The inebriates had to pay to attend rehabilitation there.
In 1907 Rev Morton sold the property to Alexander Downer, generally known as George Downer for £3,000. George Downer was a brother to Sir John Downer the former SA Premier and one of the main writers of the Australian Constitution. Retreat House continued services for inebriates until 1914 when it closed at the same time as Kalyra Consumptive Home opened on another section of George Downer’s land. The building was then occupied off and on until 1941 when it was purchased by the Anglican Church as a religious camp and retreat centre.
Meantime the Anglican Bishop of Adelaide had established St. Barnabas Theological College in 1882 opposite the cathedral. It had moved around several suburbs before closing in 1950. Bishop Reed decided in the early 1960s to re-establish St. Barnabas College and it opened at Retreat House Belair in 1965. More classrooms, accommodation and houses for trainee priests were erected on the site. From 1979 St. Barnabas became part of an interdenominational consortium of theological training which awarded degrees in divinity through Flinders University. Eventually St. Barnabas closed as this consortium opened a joint theological college at Brooklyn Park in 1997(Anglican, Catholic and Uniting.) But the site was ideal for educational purposes with a chapel, classrooms, open areas for sports and general housing. The buildings were taken over by St. John’s Grammar School as their new secondary campus. St. John’s Grammar School was established in 1958 in the old Belair Primary School. It only had primary students then. The first secondary students started at the old Retreat House in 1998. Today St. John’s has around 1,000 students. So the building has gone from servicing inebriates to theologians to retreaters, to theologians and now to school students.