Epworth gothic revival building in Adelaide city from 1927 South Australian Methodist church at unified peak
The South Australian state-heritage-listed Epworth Building (main image at left) and adjoining Adelaide city council Colonel Light Centre in Pirie Street, Adelaide city, replaced (top left) the manse from 1851 and Wesleyan Pirie Street Methodist Church from 1850. A stained glass window (bottom left) in the Epworth Building was reminder of its Methodist past after it was sold to private interests in 2003.
Manse and church image courtesy State Libarry of South Australia
The Epworth building in Pirie Street, Adelaide city, was a reminder of the Methodist church reaching a unified peak after being a strong, but divided, element of South Australian history from European settlement.
In 1900,South Australian Methodism’s three branches – the Wesleyans, Bible Christians, Primitive Methodists – united over common ideals and worship practices, as well as economic efficiency. This meant the Bible Christians and Primitive Methodists succumbed to the Wesleyan Church with twice the numbers, the best buildings and a generally better educated ministry as the central stream flowing from John Wesley.
The union of Methodism between 1920 and 1930 saw 52 churches and 43 halls built, with church funds and properties consolidated. By the 1920s, the Pirie Street Methodist Church, considered the church’s “cathedral”, needed more space for offices and a new home for its book depot, previously in King William Street, Adelaide city.
On January 17, 1924, the church’s building board decided to construct a new building next to the church. Minister William Robinson, the church's first full-time connexional secretary from 1926, was one of the principal advocates of building a church connexional administration building – named Epworth after John Wesley's birthplace in Lincolnshire, England. It was built on the site of the manse, next door to Pirie Street Methodist Church.
The Tudor revival mansion manse, built in 1853 at a cost of £1200, was demolished in 1925 to make way for the six-storey Epworth Building. The office building was designed by the architects George Soward and Thomas English, with C.H. Martin the builder and H.G. Jenkinson as consulting engineer.
When completed in 1927, at a cost of £68,469, the building had two modern lifts, electric light and bathrooms on each floor. Its gothic style, evident in the building’s moulds, ornamental column tops and cornices, was highly praised. It remained the largest remaining gothic revival commercial building in Adelaide city. One of the original building tenants was the Methodist Book Depot that, before 1900, was three separate book depots for each denomination. In 1929, tin became the Epworth Book Depot.
The adjacent Wesley Pirie Street Methodist Church, built in 1850 to seat more than 1000, amalgamated in 1969 with the Stow Congregational Church in Flinders Street. The Pirie Street church was demolished in 1976 to make way for the Adelaide city council’s Colonel Light Centre offices.
In 1977, the Methodist Church became part of the Uniting Church of Australia. The Uniting Church decided in 2003 to sell the Epworth Building to private interests. The stained glass over its foyer entrance continued to commemorate the office building's strong link to the Methodist community heritage in South Australia.