The North Sydney Parish - St Mary's Church, North Sydney, NSW - Australian Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This is a doubled-sided sign, with photos of the older, and the current Church. The text of the sign is as follows:

The North Sydney Parish - St Mary's Church

[Southern side of the sign]
The Church was established in 1856, by Father Peter Powell, the first Parish Priest assigned to the area. It was accommodated within a tent on the space fronting Miller Street.

A 40 ft x 25 ft timber Church, with three rows of seats soon replaced the tent. The Church is understood to have been a timber slab structure with raw tree trunks for posts, papered walls and reeds and bracken on the earth floor. The site included pasture and forage for feeding the 'Parish horse' which carried the Priest around his circuit which extended to the Hawkesbury River including crossing the Spit.

In 1867, the second Parish Priest, Dean John Kenny arrived and set about providing a new permanent Church. Plans were made to build an 'Early English' style freestone church with Gothic detailing and a foundation stone was laid in June 1867. It was intended that ultimately transcripts and a tower would be added to the stone church. Decorated by Messrs. Torning of Pitt Street North and renamed as St Mary's Star of the Sea, the church was officially opened on 28 June, 1868. In 1878, the Jesuits came to Sydney, with Father Joseph Dalton becoming the Parish Priest.

More than a decade later, grants for a Church and Priest's residence at the site were formalised.

The Church was enlarged with transepts to the nave for the growing congregation, increasing the seating from 240 to 600, to a design by William Wardell, Architect of St. Mary's Cathedral and opened in 1896.

[Northern side of the sign]
In May 1937, the Provincial of the Jesuit Order of Australia announced a £45,000 building program, to include the construction of a new church at North Sydney, valued at £20,000. The larger Church seat 900 people and replace St Mary's Church.

The new St Mary's designed by Architects Fowell, McConnel and Mansfield and built by R.M. Bowcock Pty Ltd, was officially opened on 4 December, 1938.
Designed in the Inter was Romanesque Style the building displays architectural elements typical of the work of Joseph Fowell, one of the key practitioners of the style. Utilising traditional planning, St Mary's is considered to be 'a fine and rare example of a large Parish Church in the Inter Ear Romanesque Style influenced by the modern movement of the 1930's.'

The new Church re-used stone, slate, marble and glass from the 1868 and 1896 buildings. The original Bell was also re-located.

[There are also photos that show the 'Front Elevation', from the east, and the 'North Elevation' of the current Church, one from 1938. There are also plans of the Church from July 1937.]

Visited: 0946, Saturday, 2 December, 2017 - as a wedding was about to take place.

[There is some lovely history given about the Church, from the website about their pipe organ; that is the website given below.]

Age/Event Date: 1856; 1867; 1868; 1878; 1896; 1937/8 Type of Historic Marker: Plaque only Type of Historic Marker if other: Plaque with photos Related Website: [Web Link] Historic Resources.: St Mary's Church

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