Baptist Chapel, 17 Scallan Street, STAWELL
17 SCALLAN STREET STAWELL, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE
Stawell Main Street Precinct
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
-
-
Baptist Chapel, 17 Scallan Street, STAWELL - Physical Description 1
The Welsh Baptist Church site at 15-17 Scallan Street, Stawell, makes a significant contribution to the local streetscape and is visually connected to St. Matthew's Uniting Church and St. Peter's Lutheran Church, which are also situated in Scallan Street. The site is identified by a painted brick church with a later brick hall to one side, and an open gravelled carpark on the side. Large pine tress and grassed areas form the predominant landscaping.
The single storey, cavity brick walled, eclectic Victorian High Renaissance and Baroque Revival styled Welsh Baptist Church building is characterised by a parapeted gable roof form, and particularly by the main Classical facade which has a projecting centrepiece capped by a bracketed pediment carrying acroteria or statuary bases in a Roman manner. The corners are unusually treated in masonry piers with staggered joints rather than as keyed quoins, and the higher mass of the entrance front composition is effectively repeated at the opposite end to give a strange double-ended effect. This rear elevation is also adorned with a flat roofed semicircular apse and gabled vestry, of similar design to the original composition of St. Matthew's Uniting Church in Scallan Street, also by R.A. Love.
The front facade has a central round arched door opening with a plain recessed surround and early panelled timber double doors. Above the doorway is a memorial tablet entitled: "A.D. 1869". Flanking the central bay are narrow rounded headed lancet stained glass windows. These windows are continued along the side elevations.
Other early decorative features of the design include the Portland cement stringcourse at window sill level, parapet cappings, cornices and blockings. These early features, and the brick wall construction, have been recently overpainted. The building rests on a quarry faced stone base (recently overpainted) and the roof is clad in Welsh slate.
Internally, the building is largely plain, and is especially distinguished by the pulpit window by Messrs Fergusson, Urie and Lyon of Melbourne. The chapel has a flat plastered ceiling with large cornices. The walls are plastered and there is a projecting dado mould. The timber seating, pulpit and other furniture - and the timber roll of honour board - are all early and significant components of the interior.
Comparative Information:
According to historian Dr. Carlotta Kellaway, the Baptist Church in Scallan Street, Stawell, represents one of only five extant Welsh churches in Victoria. The Welsh Baptist Church in Maldon, constructed in 1865 to a Victorian Primitive Gothic design, is another building in this rare group.
The Baptist Church in Stawell is also the best documented of a group of pioneering cavity brick walled buildings in Stawell. According to Dr. Miles Lewis, an eminent architectural historian, the cavity brick wall construction of the Stawell Baptist Church is apparently the first of its type in Victoria.
Heritage Study and Grading
Northern Grampians - Shire of Northern Grampians - Stage 2 Heritage Study
Author: Wendy Jacobs, Vicki Johnson, David Rowe, Phil Taylor
Year: 2004
Grading: StateStawell Main Street Precinct peer review
Author: Landmark Heritage PL
Year: 2024
Grading:
-
-
-
-
-
HILL PIPE ORGAN - ST PETER'S LUTHERAN CHURCHVictorian Heritage Register H2177
-
CENTRAL PARKVictorian Heritage Register H2284
-
COMMONWEALTH MEMORIALVictorian Heritage Register H1943
-
-