North Adelaide Baptist church (1870) matches other denominations in style suited to social standing of its suburb
The state-heritage-listed North Adelaide Baptist complex of church, manse and hall on Tynte Street, North Adelaie, remained impressively intact.
The quality and style of the North Adelaide Baptist Church complex in Tynte Street matched the Anglican cathedral, Wesleyan churches and Congregational church indicated the social standing of the original dormitory suburb of Adelaide city.
Tynte Street Baptist church congregation had its beginnings in a church on Lefevre Terrace, North Adelaide, in 1850, after a divide in the original North Adelaide congregation of Ebenezer Chapel in Brougham Court. The late 1860s saw important expansion for the Baptist church in North Adelaide as the Lefevre Terrace property was sold to E.S. Wigg and the Tynte Street church opened. Ebenezer Chapel couldn’t match the new Tynte Street premises’s attractions and the two congregations amalgamated.
Before Tynte Street church was built, services were transferred from Lefevre Terrace to the Temperance Hall in Tynte Street under pastor John Langdon Parsons. The foundation stone was laid in December 1869 by Dr H. Wheeler.
North Adelaide Baptist Church was described in the South Australian Register (July 16,1870) as “Venetian” in style with a roof of “very fine Willunga slate”. When balustrading was finished and the “ashlar freestone” dressed, the edifice promised to “be second-to-none, in North Adelaide at any rate”. The newspaper noted that the style of work was enabled by a big fall in freestone’s price. The chapel was 75 feet by 46 feet, accommodating 600: “The seats will rise from the platform to the front ... and will be in circular form so that each person will look directly towards the preacher. The entrance will be by a double flight of side steps leading to a piazza ... The portico is composed of arches with white and brown freestone pillars and carved capitals, on which the sculptors are now engaged”.
Ventilation came from a space in the centre of the ceiling covered by perforated zinc where hot air could escape into the roof that had louvre openings. At the rear were vestries for minister and deacon. To the east of the chapel, a separate building had schoolrooms and lecture hall built of Glen Osmond stone with cement dressings. The lecture hall seated 300. A passage led to 12 classrooms and a kitchen “to be fitted up with boiler and other appliances necessary for tea meetings”.
The church opened in 1870 and the apse was completed in 1874. James Cumming did design and construction and “ the idea of the church as an auditorium is most evident in this building, with its sloping floor, central organ, choir, and pulpit and the seating arranged in concentric arcs”. The architectural style and layout probably originated from the London tabernacle of the famous Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon.
The North Adelaide congregation remained under J.L. Parsons until 1876 when L.G. Carter began his ministry. He was succeeded by A.W. Webb who initiated building the manse to the east, completing the group of buildings that remained in impressive original order. The two-storey rear addition to the church were made in 1907. The integrity of the complex was complemented by the boundary wall topped with cast-iron railings to the Tynte Street frontage..
