St Thomas Presbytery
41 Wyndham Street, DRYSDALE VIC 3222 - Property No 263798
Drysdale Heritage Area
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Statement of Significance
C Listed - Local Significance
ST THOMAS ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE:
St Thomas Catholic Church building was opened in 1856 when it housed the Church and St Josephs School. It was designed by architect RS Dowden and built by Simmie and Mclachlan. Extensions were made in 1873 and the bell installed in 1878. The place has contained a hall and a Presbytery. The Church is a steeply pitched gable slate roof brick building with quoinwork, buttresses and pointed arch windows on a bluestone plinth.
St Thomas Catholic Church has aesthetic, historic and social value to the Drysdale district.
St Thomas Catholic Church was designed in a simple gothic idiom and the interesting details give it good visual qualities. It has been associated with the Catholic community in the Drysdale district continuously since1856. It is part of a group of religious buildings that have been developed over many years since the 1850s. It is a substantial church building for the Bellarine Peninsula, and indicative of the strength and aspirations of the Catholic community in the early period of development.
It is of LOCAL cultural significance.
REFERENCES:
Wynd, 1.1988 Balla-wein a history of the Shire of Bellarine p.61
Hill. R. Catholic Life on the Bellarine Peninsula p.5
Hill., ibid., p.6
Wynd ibid., p.64
ST THOMAS PRESBYTERY
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE:
St Thomas Presbytery was designed by architect A Fritsch and opened in 1917 in the same grounds as St Thomas Catholic Church. It is a large hipped roof red brick building with a wide verandah, decorative timber fretwork and tall red brick chimneys with terracotta pots. The foundation stone was laid in the presence of Archbishop Mannix before a crowd of 8,000.
St Thomas' Presbytery has aesthetic, historic and social value to the Drysdale Community.
St Thomas' Presbytery is a substantial and aesthetically pleasing building which is particularly important to the Catholic population in the Drysdale district. It was consecrated by the Archbishop of Melbourne in 1917 and has played an important role in the religious observance since then.
It is of LOCAL cultural significance.
REFERENCES:
Ruth Hill Catholic Life on the Bellarine Peninsula p.6.
Ibid p.7.
Sands & McDougalls directory 1918, 1922, 1939, 1949.
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St Thomas Presbytery - Physical Description 1
ST THOMAS CATHOLIC CHURCH
DESCRIPTION
St Thomas is situated on a large block, with a wire fence on the Wyndham St boundary, and accessed through a iron gate with the rising sun motif. The light green painted brick building has a steep pitch gable roof, clad in slate, with triangular roof ventilators, and parapet gable ends.
The east elevation has five rectangular windows, with timber pointed arch motif fenestration, and quoinwork picked out in dark green paint. The building has buttresses, the corner one angled, and a bluestone plinth. The east elevation has a small gabled slate clad roof porch , with angled buttresses, a single window, a north facing door, and a cross at the apex of the gable parapet. The north elevation has a large gabled entrance porch with across at the apex. It features a pointed arch motif window, a slate clad roof, and double timber doors facing east. The north elevation shows the main gable roof parapet, with a cross at the apex , and a small wall louvered vent as gable decoration.
ST THOMAS PRESBYTERY
DESCRIPTION:
St Thomas Presbytery was designed by Mr A Fritsch c1917 on Catholic Church grounds, east of the current church. It is a large residence, in early Californian Bunglaow style, with exposed red brickwork and white painted timber trim. The architect Mr Fritsch intended it to be "substantial and modern. to a simple plan".
The massive hipped roof, clad in tiles, culminates in a small decorative attic gable and features several tall red brick chimneys with terracotta pots. The roof continues in an unbroken line to the wide verandah, with large brick pillars at the corners, and the entrance, and timber posts with decorative capitals. The verandah has exposed rafters and a timber strut fretwork as decoration, and a large entrance gable with timber bargeboards and decorative strutwork and brackets. The verandah has timber floorboards, and returns both left and right from the north elevation. This elevation has a large central timber door, two double-hung windows to the right, and one to the left of the door.
Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Geelong - Bellarine Heritage Study
Author: Huddle, Howe, Lewis and Francis
Year: 1996
Grading: C
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DRYSDALE STOCK POUNDVictorian Heritage Inventory
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