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| Frazer Memorial Church c.1910 the jacaranda tree in front is newly planted |
In the early 1890s Springwood's Presbyterians were on
the pastoral fringes of their Church. Few in number and without a building,
they had been worshiping God for a number of years in a variety of makeshift
locations - in the open air beneath a clump of turpentine trees, in the lounge
of the Oriental Hotel, and on the screened verandah of Braemar, the private
home of one of their congregation.
By 1896, however, things had changed. A picturesque
church fronted the Western Road in the centre of town, its solid sandstone
construction proclaiming to all the permanent position it would henceforward
occupy in the evolution of Springwood's townscape.
The key to this sudden improvement in the
circumstances of the town's Presbyterians was a man whose original profession
had been the same as that of the Galilean founder of his faith: John Frazer, a
carpenter and joiner, migrated to Australia from Ireland in 1842. He was one of
those men who, arriving with little, prospered on the colonial scene, becoming,
by the 1880s, an influential figure in the business and political circles of
Sydney.
Like many of his social class in the colony, he viewed
the Blue Mountains as the ideal summer retreat from the heat and stench of the
city. To this end, in 1882, he built his country residence, an imitation
Swiss-styled villa he named Silva Plana, on the elevated north side of
Springwood. However, his enjoyment of the mountain climate was to be brief and
he died at his Woollahra home in October 1884 at the relatively young age of
fifty-seven. His death, nevertheless, was to prove of great significance to
Springwood's Presbyterians for John Frazer bequeathed them five hundred pounds
and three and a half acres of land in the centre of town to help provide a
church worthy of their faith.
Unfortunately, the trustees of the Frazer estate
showed considerable reticence about granting the bequest to what they
considered at the time an inadequate congregation. Indeed, more than a decade
passed before they were sufficiently convinced of the strength of the
Springwood faithful to release the funds.
When the foundation stone was laid on 17 August 1895,
construction, using locally quarried sandstone, then proceeded with relative
speed. Four months later the first stage of the church was opened, while the
following year the project was completed with the addition of the spire and a
rear section incorporating vestry, chancel and organ recess.
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| The Church in 2010 |
While expressing a quiet elegance the building
complied appropriately with nonconformist aesthetics. Thus, the Nepean Times’
assessment was in the following terms: "The building, which is chaste
in appearance, is designed in a simple treatment of Early Christian architecture,
effect being obtained rather from the general lines and grouping of the
features than from any undue richness in ornamentation or detail."
With a sermon preached on the theme of the building of
King Solomon's temple, and to the strains of a thirty strong choir who sang
their praises to the accompaniment of an American organ, the new church was
officially opened on Sunday 8 December 1895. The regular minister to the
Springwood congregation, the Rev. James McKee of Penrith, swapped his pulpit
for the day with the Rev. John Walker of the Frazer family's home church of
Woollahra.
The church was classified by the National Trust in
1978. It had, said the Trust, "an architectural quality rare in buildings
in the area".
Source: Historic Blue Mountains, text by John Low, paintings
by Richard Smolicz, Blue Mountains City Council, 1987.
