Box Hill, VIC - St Andrew's Uniting

History and Architecture:

The first Presbyterian Church Service was held on 6 February 1867 by the Rev W Rolland. By 1887 a Theological student by the name of Alex Walker was engaged to run services at both Box Hill and Surrey Hills.

The original site for the first church was Court Street and a wooden building was opened in July 1889. A larger weatherboard church was built in 1911 at the corner of Whitehorse Road and Bruce Street.

The church was known as the Box Hill Presbyterian Church until April 1912 when it was changed to St Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

By 1932 a brick church was planned but was not built as the Presbyterian Assembly offered Box Hill a Gothic bluestone church in West Melbourne which was no longer used for worship. This church was designed by architects Chandler & Patrick. The Congregation accepted the offer and so the church in West Melbourne was demolished and erected and opened in 1935 in its original form, though slightly smaller. The stained glass windows, its fine pipe organ, and the furnishings from West Melbourne were installed in the new building.

A Gothic church in rough dressed bluestone, which is a remodelling of that designed by Smith & Watts and built in 1866-67 as the Presbyterian Church, West Melbourne, with a tower modelled upon St Botolph, Boston, Lincolnshire.

In 1935 the building, modified in its dimensions, and with the south front and tower redesigned, was re-erected at Box Hill. The architects in conjunction were John Scarborough, of Scarborough, Robertson & Love, and Hugh Craig, of Craig, Reynolds & Garrett, and the removal of the building was the most difficult task of the kind yet attempted in Australia.