Glebe Presbyterian Church (relocated building)

Glebe Presbyterian Church: a congregation and a building on the move

Glebe’s Presbyterian congregation began in the University Hotel in 1874. After a temporary wooden church, it commissioned architect Thomas Rowe to design a permanent sandstone building. The new church opened on 1 March 1879, with substantial support from benefactor Joseph Paxton.

Church life extended beyond Sunday services. Members organised literary and debating activities, music, youth groups and assistance for local families. The Dorcas Society, formed in 1876, made clothing and distributed relief. These activities placed the congregation within Glebe’s wider social life.

Traffic eventually changed the building’s future. In 1927, concern about noise from trams and buses led to its removal from the busy corner. The church was dismantled and re-erected on Pyrmont Bridge Road, where it opened on 14 July 1928. The congregation decided to move again in 1969, this time to premises at 244 Glebe Road. The history therefore belongs to several locations: a hotel room, the original church corner and the relocated sandstone building.

• Max Solling, “The History of the Glebe Presbyterian Church”, Leichhardt Historical Journal 4, pp. 9, 12–13.
• Jocelyn Jackson, “The Architecture of the Glebe Presbyterian Church”, Leichhardt Historical Journal 4, pp. 15.