Seventh Day Adventist Church

In 1919, some 500 Queensland delegates camped in tents in Windsor Park at Albion for the church’s annual conference. A small group continued to meet in the Labour Hall in Stoneleigh Street and applied for church status in 1920 by which time there were 12 churches (congregations) in Queensland and 691 members. In addition to evangelising, mission work was a major focus of the Adventists who were active in 92 countries.

In 1927, the Australasia Conference Association (the administrative body which held property in trust for the Church) purchased 24 perches (607m2) of land in McLennan Street, Albion. A disused timber church from the Adventists in Murgon was moved to the McLennan Street site and dedicated on Sunday 13 February 1927. The church included a baptistry and a schoolroom at the rear. At the dedication ceremony, Mr J Robinson, one of the first elders of the church spoke of the origins of the church:

“… the Albion Church originated principally from a mission held in a printing workshop in [Fortitude] Valley and conducted by Bro. Rudge in 1919. After several changes, the work of the church developed to such an extent that it became desirous that they should erect a place of worship for themselves…”.

According to an article in the Queenslander on 5 March 1927, the Seventh Day Adventist movement had grown considerably in recent years and the opening of the new church at Albion “marked a new stage in the advancement of the sect”. 

In 1939 the church was replaced by a new building that could seat more than 200 people. The new church was built by Mr C Retschlag of Retschlag and Son at a cost £1,200. Some of the cost was raised by members of the church. It was revealed at the official opening on 11 June that all Adventist churches and halls in Australia had been put at the government’s disposal due to the possibility of a national emergency from the outbreak of World War II. 

The Interwar period was a time of new architectural styles in Brisbane. Most churches built during this period, however, continued to be designed along traditional lines. It was often non-conformist churches that constructed places of worship displaying new architectural fashions such as Art Deco which was popular for ‘modern’ buildings such as cinemas, cafes and commercial premises. The Seventh Day Adventist Church at Albion, although modest, has an facade displaying Art Deco elements such as the use of horizontal and vertical straight lines, a stepped parapet skyline, and stylised, low relief ornamentation.

Three months after opening, it was announced in the Courier Mail on 28 Sept 1939 that the Adventist primary school in the school grounds would commence teaching secondary school students the following year. In 1953, the school outgrew the Albion site and was relocated to a new building in Zillmere near the Seventh Day Adventist Camp Ground. This building was destroyed in a fire in 1978. 

Council records reveal that the McLennan Street church was altered in 1954 and this probably included adding the enclosed front porch. In 2016 the church remains in the ownership of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and continues to serve the needs of its congregation.

The church is a one-storey timber-framed building that is low-set at the front and high-set at the rear due to a fall in the land. Attached to the rear of the church is a schoolroom, expressed in the external form by a step in the roof and walls. The understorey of the church has been enclosed and no fabric of the understorey is of cultural heritage significance. The church has a simple gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets and its walls are clad with weatherboards up to sill height and sheets and cover strips above that. The sides of the church have casement windows with fanlights. The front of the church is noticeably different, comprising a symmetrical facade clad with stucco with a stepped parapet featuring horizontal bands and a central element of vertical lines above embossed lettering ‘ALBION SEVENTH DAY’. The remainder of the lettering is obscured by a later (probably 1950s) enclosed front porch with central entrance and steps and an angled overhanging roof. This later porch is not of cultural heritage significance. 

The interior of the church has later linings and layout, none of which is of cultural heritage significance. The large open span of the interior is braced by original metal tie rods. 

The church leads through to the schoolroom behind, which has also been relined in part but retains portions of the original v-jointed timber board wall linings uncovered.

1. Apperly, Richard, Irving, Robert & Reynolds, Peter, A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture, (Sydney: Harper Collins, 1994)

2. BCC building cards

3. BCC Surveyor’s Field Book plans C287-27-22 21 Sept1916 and C287-135- 9 Dec 1935

4. Queensland Certificates of Title

5. Queensland Post Office Directories

6. South Queensland Conference Adventist Heritage Centre website.  http://sqheritage.adventist.org.au/history - viewed 26 Sept 2014

7. Digitised newspapers and other records. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

8. BCC, BCA 0069 Building Registers and Indexes 1925 Oct to 1945, Dec – 1939 Jan -1939 Dec

9. Phone conversation and email correspondence with Mr Arnold Reye, Seventh Day Adventist historian (Qld), 3 Oct 2014