Congregational Church and Hall (former)

The original Yeronga Congregational Church in School Road was officially opened in 1915 with functions on the 6 and 7 March. Altogether, the building, land and furniture cost £300.

This high-set timber and tin building had a decorative porch on the right side and drop moulding was featured above each window.

The first Sunday school treat was held at the Grimes’ Estate on Saturday 5 June 1915 with 200 people in attendance.

The increasing urbanisation of Yeronga in the interwar years was reflected in the growth of the Yeronga Congregational Church community in the area. 

With a growing congregation and proposed alterations to buildings on the site, Mr Bernard Joseph Shay donated an adjoining block of land in School Road in 1942. This was in memory of his late wife Elizabeth Grey Shay who died in April 1936, and was a foundation member of the original church.

The final plans for the church improvements, which appeared to include a front porch and rear hall, were drawn up at the July meeting of 1936 with building work starting shortly afterwards. Church services started in the new building from 7 February 1937, a month before it was completed.

 

The church building and hall were officially opened and dedicated on 21 March 1937.

In early 1952 work started on the rear extension to the hall to take in a kindergarten room, a new minister’s vestry and a new kitchen. 

A stump capping ceremony and fair was held on 27 June 1953 when the President of the Queensland Congregational Union, Rev H W King officiated.

Following delays to extending the hall, work recommenced in May 1956 on the hall extension. The building was officially opened by Dr Noble MLA on 28 July 1956. 

A number of minor alterations were later made, including a new floor in the hall, vestry and kitchen. The dividing section between the hall and kindergarten was also removed.

In 1961 the Yeronga, Brighton Road and South Brisbane Congregational churches joined together as a three-church Pastorate with two ministers, Rev H Abbott and Pastor K Whittle. Pastor Whittle had the responsibility for the Yeronga and Brighton Road Churches.

In 1977 the Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches amalgamated to form the Uniting Church, although some congregations remained apart from this union. The following year land title records showed a change in land ownership when it was vested from the President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Queensland Congregational Union and vested in the Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust.

Between 1964 and 1990 the church was converted into a hall and leased to various groups for public functions. It has subsequently converted into a childcare centre.

In 1988 the Uniting Church Property Trust sold the property to Emil and Sabina Grozdanov. The property was sold to the Sheptoocha Family Trust in 1996 and the building complex on the site is known as the Grosvenor Hall Preschool & Early Learning Centre. 

The building was originally a rectangular timber-clad structure built in a simplified Federation Carpenter Gothic style with a street-facing gable and a steeply pitched roof clad with corrugated sheeting. 

Although the original church building has been added to and remodelled (a hall was added at the rear and a small new porch and stairs at the front) it still maintains its basic integrity and some original detailing such as its decorative window drip moulds.

1. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

2. Brisbane City Council Properties on the Web

3. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

4. Stephens District Character and Heritage Study. Heritage Unit, Brisbane City Council, 1995

5. Byrnes, Matthew, Stephens District: Historical Overview, 1995

6. Former Yeronga Congregational Church, BCC Heritage Unit files

7. Whittle, Keith, Yeronga Congregational Church, 1914-1964: Church History by a committee comprising Keith Whittle and others, Yeronga Congregational Church, Brisbane 1964