Former Wesley Church and Parsonage

By 1886, the Stanley Street Church was becoming unsuitable so a new site of over an acre was purchased between Princess and Linton Streets. The existing wooden church was relocated on the new site during the ministry of the Rev W. Halse Rogers. After the move from Stanley Street, the church was renamed Wesley Church. It later also became known as the Wesley Methodist Church. 

The new brick Wesley Church, which could hold 500 people,  was built during the ministry of Rev W. Powell. The mayor of South Brisbane, George Blocksidge, was among the dignitaries who laid the foundation stone. The church was opened on 22 November 1903 by Rev W.G. Taylor, a former minister of the congregation, who was then superintendent of the Central Mission in Sydney. The new church was built by contractors  J. Stewart & Co to a design by architect Henry W. Atkinson.

The church contained a number of fine architectural features as described by the Daily Mail on the day after the opening: 

The building is a commanding structure, designed in the early Gothic style. The walls are of pressed brick eighteen inches thick and finished externally with terra cotta bricks. The windows, set in wrought iron panels, are filled with a pleasant tint of green. A large window in the south gable is specially fine. The roof is covered with Walter’s patent paragon tile iron, and is ventilated with three large Boyle’s patent ventilators. The length of the building from front of chancel aisle to front of church is 77ft, 6in, width of nave 41ft, height 22ft 6in. Behind the pulpit are the choir and organ - in an aspidal-ended recess, with vestry on either side for minister and choir respectively. The main entrance porch is 30ft wide; there are also two side porches. The interior of the church is finished with Keen’s cement, with wooden dado, which is oak grained. The ceiling and other roof timbers are polished, and the pulpit French polished and varnished. The floor is of Crow’s ash, and has a gradient of 20in in 60ft. Lighting and ventilation are very satisfactory.” 

An organ made by local company, Whitehouse & Co, was donated to the church by Rheuben Nicklin. 

The church building, which cost a total of £3,500 to erect and furnish, soon became an important centre of  Methodist worship. The old church was devoted to the work of the "flourishing" Sunday School and used as a hall until it was removed from the site and replaced by a new masonry hall in 2001. 

The existing parsonage at River Terrace, Kangaroo Point, continued to serve as the residence for the minister at the Linton Street Wesley Church. It was extended by the addition of two bedrooms in 1913. In 1920, the church trustees resolved to sell the River Terrace parsonage and began making plans to build a new one in Linton Street.. In August 1920, the River Terrace property was sold to a Mrs Linley for £1,350. This amount covered most of the cost of building a new timber parsonage in Linton Street next to the church. The Rev William G. Goddard had taken up residence in the new parsonage by 1921.  The house is no longer in use as a parsonage and is rented out by the church as accommodation and to raise church funds.

In 1977, when the Uniting Church was formed by the amalgamation of Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, the church was renamed the Kangaroo Point Uniting Church. It continues to serve the local Uniting Church community.

The building is constructed of 460mm thick brickwork with terra cotta bricks externally, laid in Flemish bond. Rising from a rendered brickwork plinth, and incorporating stepped buttresses to provide stiffening to the high walls, the walls are slightly corbelled out at the eaves to support the eaves gutter. Directly under this corbelling are moulded header bricks spaced half brick apart to provide dentil moulding. The space between these dentils contains gauze wire birdproofing providing eaves ventilation to the roof. Sub-floor ventilation is provided by terra cotta brick vents built into the plinth.

The stepped buttresses terminate with triangulated capping pieces and where stepping occurs the splayed step has been rendered. Buttresses at the front of the building extend beyond the roof line and are terminated with cylindrical finials.

Running between buttresses is a moulded concrete sill coping which sits directly under the rendered brick sills.

The steeply pitched roof is sheeted with ribbed metal and replaces roofing which was destroyed by hail in the early 1980s. The original roof was covered with Watter's patent paragon tile iron and ventilated with three large Boyle's patent ventilators. The roofs to the apse, vestries and entrance vestibule are all sheeted in similar material.

The framing to the nave roof is provided by exposed hammer beam trusses (without collar ties) supported on truss brackets built into the brick wall. The ceiling is lined with tongue and groove boarding laid diagonally.

The window openings to the nave are in the Gothic decorated style. Windows are stained glass in steel frames and the opening windows are hoppers. Jamb and arch framing is rendered to represent stone.

The windows in the southern end gable, located above the entrance vestibule roof are similar in style to the nave windows, with the central window being taller dominating the elevation. The stained glass panels in these windows are protected from hail damage by screening.

A moulded concrete sill coping runs between buttresses at sill level and unites the front windows.

Windows to the entrance vestibule, vestry and apse are less decorative and consist of rectangular lead lighted windows in steel frames.

Three lancet windows in the southern and northern gable ends contain horizontal louvres which provide ventilation to the roof space.

Main access to the church is by way of a steep set of concrete steps flanked by rendered brickwork balustrade. A pipe handrail has been provided either side of the steps to facilitate access. The entrance is a double leaf timber vertical joint door hung on cast metal hinge brackets. Above the transom is an equilateral arch Gothic style fanlight with stained glass panels.

The entrance portal is flanked by two slender concrete columns supporting the arch moulding. The entrance portal terminates in a gable which is capped with a finial. Buttresses either side of the entry are extended beyond the parapet level and terminate with a splayed and triangulated capping.

Access for the disabled is provided at the rear of the building through the western vestry.

The floor is constructed of timber and is built with a fall from entry vestibule down to the pulpit.

The internal face of the brick external walls is rendered and painted. These surfaces are deteriorating due to moisture penetration through the walls.

The finely detailed pulpit is constructed in silky oak. Access to the organ loft behind the pulpit is by means of a small stairway located against the back wall of the apse/office.

A 'lean to' roof supported on slender pipe rods provides cover to the rear access to the apse/office. This 'lean to' is out of character with the remainder of the building.

Parsonage

The former parsonage is a timber house in the Queensland interwar vernacular style situated on the adjacent lot to the church on the eastern side. It is elevated on stumps with a corrugated iron roof. Entry to the house is via timber stairs which lead to a gabled porch on the south–western corner of the house. 

1. BCC Detail Plan no 67, nd

2. Brisbane City Council Surveyor’s Field Book entry. C345-29 6 May 1922

3. Brisbane City Council Building Cards

4. Brisbane Courier, 28 Oct 1905. NLA Trove website

5. Daily Mail, 23 November 1903. NLA Trove website

6. Dingle, Rev R.S.C. 1947, Annals of Achievement: A Review of Queensland Methodism 1847-1943, Queensland Book Depot, Brisbane

7. JOL, Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Queensland Records. R882/2 – Records of the Wesleyan Church, Kangaroo Point. Minutes 1907-1962. Box 7911

8. Queensland Methodist Times, 10 August 1944

9. Queensland Post Office Directories

10. EHP. Queensland Certificates of Title