Mission to rescue the best
Wesley Methodist Church on Broadway Ave is preparing to demolish Palmerston North’s old St Paul’s, possibly as soon as this summer.
The Terrace End landmark building has been closed since the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and has not been used for services since the adjoining Wesley Methodist worship centre was built in the 1980s.
But before the 107-year-old building is farewelled, historian and former city mayor Jill White wants to trace the families of parishioners whose memories are honoured there.
‘‘I’ve taken responsibility for the treasures and an immense number of people are helping to track down descendants of people named in the memorials.’’
White said the church would look after with dignity any plaques that could not be returned to families.
Her goal was to make contact with as many descendants as possible before the end of November.
That was when the church was planning a service to commemorate the memories and people who were an important part of the history of the building and the community.
The picture windows would be preserved, with the hope of incorporating them into a new wall the worship centre currently shares with the side of the brick church.
Windows honouring the city’s early pioneers, its craftsmen and the sons of businessmen John Cunninghame, Horace, and George Bennett, Gordon, were out of the ordinary, having been made from fibreglass.
The stained glass windows at the front of the church were not memorials, but held their own appeal and would be looking for new homes.
The church itself has stood on the site since 1911, having replaced an 1875 building that was the first church in Palmerston North.
It had been substantially altered over the decades and is not listed as a heritage building.
A row of ranchslider doors installed about 1971 slices the space in half, and the pipe organ has been removed.
The pews were taken out, and some of the timber from them was used to create a reredos on the front wall. A new pulpit was crafted from the original.
The congregations of St Paul’s and Trinity church on Cuba St combined in the early 1990s at the new worship centre.
The church was no longer big enough for them all and has been used as Off The Street arts and theology centre and for other community activities.
Six years ago the church was given a seismic rating of less than 5 per cent of new building standards.
Demolition has been inevitable since then, although a resource consent application to demolish has not yet been lodged.
Meantime, White is working to find a future for the memorial plaques.
One has already gone to Pohangina, where a former county engineer will continue to be remembered.
The family of former minister Albert Tregurtha has claimed his plaque, while the church will care for the war memorial plaques.
The remaining mysteries include Captain Henry Haydon, Rev William Ready, Alexander George Gooch, Rev George William James Spence, and Rev John Ernest Parsons.