Gothic Smyth Memorial Chapel an isolated treasure from 1871 in Adelaide city's West Terrace cemetery
The Smyth Memorial Chapel from 1871 in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide city.
Image courtesy City of Adelaide
A rare octagonal gothic chapel became an isolated South Australian state-heritage treasure in the northwest Roman Catholic section of Adelaide city’s West Terrace cemetery.
The chapel was a memorial from 1871 to priest John Smyth, who rose to vicar general of the Catholic church in South Australia.
Born in Ireland in 1824, Smyth arrived in Adelaide in 1853. He became a favourite of the people, priests and bishops, becoming involved in missionary work at Port Adelaide. He had a church constructed there in 1858. In 1865, he was appointed administrator of the diocese of Adelaide and became vicar general in 1866. He died in 1870.
The chapel built as a memorial to Smyth was designed by architect E. John Woods after a competition run by the Smyth Memorial Fund Committee. Constructed by Peters and Jones for about £472, the chapel’s octagonal design had 21 feet internal diameter with an open timber roof rising from each angle and topped by a bell turret. Built of bluestone with freestone dressings, each of the buttresses had a carved grotesque.
The opening ceremony for the chapel, in front of a large crowd, was in October 1871. Archbishop Lawrence Sheil and Archdeacon Patrick Russell also were buried in a crypt beneath the chapel.
In 2019, major restoration of the Smyth Memorial Chapel included reinvigorating the eight grotesques that made it such a unique building. Other conservation work included carving new crosses and bosses in limestone imported from the United Kingdom to match the original stone, as well as blacksmith wrought iron mongering of new decorative hinges and door pulls. The restoration was funded through contributions from the Catholic archdiocese of Adelaide, the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority and the state government’s environment and water department. The work won the South Australian Civic Trust's 2019 Bob Such award for design for social benefit.
Cemeteries authority chief executive officer Robert Pitt said the Smyth Chapel contributed greatly to the “aesthetic and historical” landscape of the heritage-listed cemetery: “Most people are unaware of this wonderful building and its location within the cemetery grounds... It could be a building in Europe, but sits prominently, if not somewhat isolated, in the cemetery surrounded by the headstones of the parishioners it has sheltered and served.”
