City Congregational Church was a church building

Church Building

The Church Building is located at the corner of Main and Market Streets in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, United States, just across Market Street from the Dutchess County Court House, and north of the Bardavon Theater...

 of the Congregational Church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 in Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, which replaced the Wharf Street Congregational Church, Brisbane

Wharf Street Congregational Church, Brisbane

The Wharf Street Congregational Church was a Congregational church built in 1860 on the corner of Wharf Street and Adelaide Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The church was demolished in 1928...

.

Construction

Construction commenced in 1927 while Sunday services were temporarily held in the Constitutional Club rooms and His Majesty's Theatre.

On Saturday 14 January 1928, the church hall at 409 Adelaide Street was opened. Costing £19,000, it had two floors. The ground floor had shops, offices and social rooms, while the upper floor was a large hall. On 27 May 1928 the new pipe organ was used in services for the first time. The intention was to use the hall for services while funds were raised over the following two to three years to enable the construction of the church itself on the Queen Street side of the property. However, during to the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, the funds to build the church were not raised and services continued to be conducted in the church hall.

World War II and Wickham Terrace

World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 began, and in September 1941 evening services at the City Congregational Church were shifted to the late afternoon to accommodate the black-out.
In January 1942, the church hall was commandeered by the Australian Government Department of Munitions and Supplies. The Albert Street Methodist Church offered their church as a venue for services for the Congregational community.

In October 1942, the congregation found a new home in a former Presbyterian church on Wickham Terrace. This church had been acquired in 1905 for extensions to Brisbane's Central Railway Station (the Presbyterian congregation established St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Brisbane

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Brisbane

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church is a church building of the Presbyterian denomination built on the corner of Ann and Creek Streets, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1905. Following the merger of Protestant non-conformist churches in Australia in 1977, St Andrew's became part of the Uniting Church...

 to replace their Wickham Terrace church). As the extensions to the railway station did not take place immediately, the railways used the building as for storage of records until 1929, after which they leased it out as a gym

Gym

The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

nasium until 1941. The Congregational community leased the Wickham Terrace church building from 1942 to 1960, after which the church was demolished for road works.

Ministers

The initial minister was Rev. Percival Watson, who had transferred with the congregation from the former Wharf Street church. He served (at Wharf Street, Adelaide Street and Wickham Terrace) for 22 years until he left in May 1947 to take up the ministry of the Pitt Street Congregational Church in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

.