Originally posted on 22nd March, 2019
This is a book review with a difference. PMI member Geoffrey Paterson takes you through the books he used to research his Eastern Hill places of worship tour for the Uniting Church Historical Society. You can view the text of his tour in PMI’s periodical collection. https://library.pmi.net.au/fullRecord.jsp?recno=19853
Thanks for your hard work Geoffrey.
I am not a regular PMI Library user and visit the Library when a particular task arises. I outline here how and why I recently used the Library, my approach to this particular task, and some PMI resources I used.
Context
In the last two years, I have helped organise a Melbourne CBD Places of Worship Tour for the Uniting Church Historical Society. Each is a free guided tour of three places of worship.[i] Tour participants receive an eight-page A5 booklet which backgrounds Melbourne’s CBD and provides specific details for each place of worship.
The following notes outline some PMI resources I used to write the 2018 tour notes. This tour in Eastern Hill visited East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, St Peter’s Anglican Church, and the German Evangelical Trinity Lutheran Church.
My approach to research
How do I approach my reading? I first consider the chronology including when the place of worship was built. The second is its location and how it has changed. A third aspect is the architecture including stained glass windows and musical instruments.
Useful PMI resources
The following paragraphs outline PMI resources I have used.
Chronology
A very useful publication for early Melbourne places of worship is J.M. Freeland, Melbourne churches 1836–1851: an architectural record. Parkville: Melbourne University Press, 1963.
Part I of this book covers building materials, builders and architects, and financing of these early churches. Two chapters also examine the Pioneer Period (1836–1842) and the Primitive Period (1842–1851). Each chapter in Part II considers churches from seven denominations. The book includes photographs, maps and appendices. The section on St Peter’s succinctly outlines its history, architecture, and development of the buildings on this site.
Location
Winston Burchett, East Melbourne, 1837–1977: people, places, problems. Hawthorn: Craftsman Press, 1978 usefully describes the main and subsidiary parts to the Hoddle Grid, the land grants and reservations, and Crown land sales. Although St Peter’s establishment predates these events, the Lutheran Church and other Eastern Hill denominations received a land grant. Burchett also devotes some 30 pages to churches and schools including each of the places we visited.
Architecture
I consulted two resources from the PMI in the preparation of the tour notes.
A. Willingham, St Peter’s Church, Albert Street, Eastern Hill Melbourne: a cultural history and conservation analysis for the trustees of St Peter’s Church. Allan Willingham Architectural Historian, 1992. This large volume has three parts. Part A Understanding the Place uses a range of photographs, plans and documents to detail the history of the church and associated buildings. Part B Architectural Analysis and Assessment of Cultural Significance uses text and photographs to survey the church’s physical fabric. Part C provides guidelines for conservation. The Appendices provide, in one place, a range of maps and original documents many handwritten relating to the church complex.
H.D. Mees, Editor, A German church in the garden of God: Melbourne’s Trinity Lutheran Church 1853–2003. East Melbourne: Trinity Church Historical Society for Trinity German Lutheran Church, 2004. This 700-page volume starts with the arrival of Lutherans in the late 1840s, the building of the Eastern Hill church, to the present day. It also devotes a chapter to Lutheran congregations in other Victorian locations. I particularly used Chapter 10 which traces the succession of buildings and supplies details of the exterior (pp. 451–456) and interior (pp. 456–463). The book contains many photographs and maps.
In the preparation of the tour booklets, I have used a range of sources including the State Library. However, I value the PMI Library because it is close to public transport, resources are accessible, and the Library staff is always helpful. I will be using the PMI to prepare my 2019 tour notes.
Geoffrey Paterson
[i] 2017 and 2018 tour reports have been published in the Proceedings of the Uniting Church Historical Society Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. The 2017 report is in volume 24 No 2 December 2017, pp. 109–111. The 2018 report is in volume 25 no 2, December 2018, pp. 143–152.