Katoomba Court House

Aerial view of the court House in 1972

By the early 1890s Katoomba had become, through coal and tourism, a town with a future. Municipal status had been granted in 1889 and the possibilities of continued growth held promise of glittering prizes for local commerce.

Civic pride flowered in the hearts of the town's citizens and men prominent in local affairs began to seek expression of Katoomba's new prestige through the erection of appropriate public buildings.

A new brick post office was erected in the Bathurst Road in 1887 while, in 1891, a substantial timber railway station replaced its earlier counterpart at the gateway to the town. A year later, in 1892, a deputation of aldermen travelled to Sydney to argue for the construction of a court house at Katoomba.

Three years later, on Saturday 4 May 1895, a large crowd of locals and visitors gathered by the Bathurst Road on the Sydney side of Katoomba. They watched as the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Frederick Darley, accepted a silver, ebony-handled trowel and mallet of lignum vitae and proceeded ceremonially to lay the foundation stone of the latest jewel in Katoomba's crown. The new court house, said the Mountaineer newspaper, would be a building whose "outward appearance will delight those with architectural tastes, while its inner compartments will be a terror to evil doers".

In his speech Sir Frederick acknowledged that he was no stranger to Katoomba, declaring that the last seven years he had spent at Lilianfels, his country retreat on the cliffs at Echo Point, had been the happiest of his life. He had watched the town grow from a village, huddled around one main road and a few bridle paths, into a municipality with the potential to become the playground of Australia. He had no doubt that Katoomba would prosper and praised the energy of her leading citizens.

All who spoke, both at the ceremony and at the "capital lunch" which followed in the Carrington, echoed these sentiments. And, as the building took shape over the ensuing months, the quality and style of its construction seemed to personify this prevailing spirit of optimism.

The stone used for its outer walls was a "perfectly white" freestone quarried locally, within a mile of the building site. It was claimed by one of the contractors that "he had never met its equal". Internally, the story was the same. The walls were finished in smoke coloured plaster, the ceiling curved and paneled with heavy cedar moldings. The acoustic properties were especially commented upon as was the large semicircular, lead-lighted front window through which a softened light suffused the court room. When the building was opened for business on 19 February 1896 the presiding magistrate declared it to be "one of the most comfortable and elegant in the colony".

At the laying of the foundation stone several dignitaries had expressed the hope that, while the court house was a credit to the district, it would be little, if ever, used. Throughout the first day of business, in these admired and civilized surroundings, such fanciful expectations were grounded by reality. A succession of flawed humanity stood before the bench charged with everything from drunkenness and obscene language to assault and robbery. Later, by 1926, business was such that the building had to be enlarged.

The civic optimists were soon reminded that not all Katoomba's citizens shared their faith. The court house served other functions than the mere provision of "an architectural ornament to the town".

Ref: The Court House, Katoomba, in: Historic Blue Mountains, 1987 by John Low

Frazer Memorial Church, Springwood

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.

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.