Apostolic Church of Queensland

There was a demand for new community services, including churches, with the economic revival of the mid-1880s and accompanying increase in Annerley’s residential population with the opening up the Thompson Estate.

Methodist churches in Brisbane originally were established under one of the forms of Methodism – Primitive, Bible Christians, Wesleyan and United Free Methodists. By the early 1890s congregations were declining which led the Methodist churches to combine in late 1890s. This strengthened their spiritual and financial base and extended preaching circuits and building churches in outlying areas. 

The Cornwall Street church was designed by Messrs Taylor and Richer and erected by contractor Mr C Topper. Taylor and Richer practised as architects in Brisbane from 1 May 1888 when Mark Taylor of South Brisbane joined the builder William Richer in partnership. 

The church was finally completed with a debt of £300. Land titles records show that the church trustees took out a mortgage of £280. 

The church could seat 200 people and was designed with a partition wall which could be taken down when enlargement was necessary.

It has superior detailing for a small church, with stained glass windows, vestry accommodation (added later), wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling and sloping floor down to the sanctuary. A comment was made in the first issue of the Queensland Christian Witness and Methodist Journal for 1889 that, “the floor has a gentle rise from the pulpit to the door, which has the effect of drawing the preacher and people close together”.

The gable-roofed church hall was built prior to 1935 as it has been noted in a detail plan of the same date.

In 1973 the church was sold to the Apostolic Church of Queensland. Extensive alterations were subsequently undertaken prior to the church’s 25th jubilee celebrations in 1998. This included extending the porch and vestibule and installing a new stained glass window. 

H F Niemeyer, the founder of the Apostolic Church in Queensland, arrived in the Colony from Germany with his wife and three children on 28 June 1883. The Apostolic Church of Queensland was established in 1886 and today has 28 churches across Queensland with three located in the Brisbane region – Annerley, Nundah and Oxley.

 

The building has a rectangular plan with a street-facing gable, decorative brackets and finial. The steeply pitched roof extends beyond the walls to provide small overhanging eaves. Natural light is introduced by lancet stained glass windows at the front and sides of the building and diamond-shaped coloured glass windows at upper section of the front wall. 

Access to the building is via a side entry to the front vestibule projecting towards the street. This entry porch appears to have been enlarged during the most recent renovation of the building. Pictures of the church prior to renovations in 1993 show steps on either side of the porch entrance. There were also dormer windows in the gabled roof, which have since been removed.

An unusual feature of the interior is the floor of the nave, which has been designed to slope down to the sanctuary. Of note is the church’s timber barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Both the church and hall at the rear have plastic cladding with a weatherboard pattern over the original timber weatherboard exterior. Both buildings are in a good state of repair. The Apostolic Church built the roof cover over the western side of the hall. Toilet facilities are located on the southern boundary at the rear of the hall. There is a grass car park area on the western section of the site.

1. Apostolic Church of Queensland website, www.apostolicchurch.qld.org.au

2. Brisbane City Council, A Heritage Study: Brisbane Places of Worship, Pre 1940 Vol 1, Heritage Unit. 

3. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

4. Brisbane City Council, Detail Plan No 409, 4 September 1935

5. Brisbane City Council Properties on the Web

6. Courier Mail, 6 November, 1888, p 6

7. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Certificates of Title

8. Dingle, RSC, ed. Annals of Achievement: A review of Queensland Methodism 1847-1947, p 229

9. Queensland Christian Witness and Methodist Journal, 1 January, 1889, Brisbane, p 9

10. Watson, Donald and Judith McKay. Queensland Architects of the 19th Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994