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Baptist Church is a heritage-listed former church at 188 Brisbane Street, Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George Brockwell Gill and Richard Gailey and built in 1954 by Messrs MacGregor and Brown, Messers Mackenzie and Co. It is also known as Studio 188, Memorial Gate, and Central Baptist Church. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 4 July 2006. == History == The former Ipswich Baptist Church, first designed by eminent Queensland architect, Richard Gailey and erected in 1877 on Brisbane Street, was originally a simple gabled brick building in a classical idiom. The church acquired adjacent land on Limestone Street and established a Sunday School hall and a manse there. An Art Deco-influenced refurbishment of the church was completed in 1938 under the direction of prolific Ipswich architect, George Brockwell Gill. A gateway comprising a gable roof supported on barley-twist columns was opened by the church in 1954 to honour those from the church who fought, suffered and died during World War II, and to provide an entrance to memorial grounds established next to the church on Brisbane Street. In 2004 the congregation established itself elsewhere and the church was sold to eventually be transformed into a performance venue by the Ipswich City Council in 2012.〔 Ipswich was one of the earliest settlements in Queensland, commencing as a convict out-station known as Limestone in 1827. From its inception as a free settlement in 1842, Ipswich was important as a port on the Bremer River located at the intersection of routes to the Darling Downs and Upper Brisbane Valley. Its people, together with many squatters, cherished the hope that the town might become the capital of the prospective Colony of Queensland, however, Brisbane assumed that role after separation from New South Wales in 1859. Nevertheless, Ipswich remained important as a major regional centre, being declared a municipality in 1860 and then a city in 1904.〔〔Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland, 'Ipswich' place description viewed at Queensland Places website at URL http://queenslandplaces.com.au/node/447 on 30 April 2013.〕〔History of Ipswich City Council viewed at http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/about_council/council_history/ on 30 April 2013.〕 The Ipswich Baptist congregation was the second to be formed in Queensland. Initially the colony's first Baptists met in Brisbane as part of a United Evangelical Church formed in 1849 under the leadership of Reverend Charles Stewart, a Baptist Minister, and including Presbyterians and Congregationalists.〔Parker, D. 'The Origins of Baptists in Australia: Queensland', part of the Heritage Program at the Baptist World Alliance Congress held 5–9 January 2000, viewed at http://www.bwa-baptist-heritage.org /hc-ozqld.htm on 2 May 2013.〕 After the retirement of Stewart in December 1854, the Baptists separated from the union, forming an independent congregation in Brisbane in August 1855.〔〔 At Ipswich, the Baptists initially held combined services with the Congregational Church from the early 1850s. They commenced meeting independently in June 1859 in a hired bowling alley and in January the following year officially formed a Baptist church with 7 members.〔〔Some early Baptist history is described at http://home.pacific.net.au/~dparker/deacon.html (viewed on 2 May 2013) extracted from Parker, D. Thomas and William Deacon: General Baptists in Queensland, Baptist Historical Series No. 8.〕〔Sands LJL. 150 years young: the continuing story of the Ipswich Baptists - 1859-2009, self-published 2009, ISBN 1921514248.〕 The congregation built its first church in August 1860: a small chapel constructed in the West Street garden of the church's first pastor, Rev. Thomas Deacon (he died shortly before the chapel's opening).〔Parker D 2000 & Slaughter, LE. Ipswich municipal centenary, Brisbane, for the Council of the City of Ipswich, 1960.〕〔'Ipswich Baptist Church', The Queensland Baptist, 1 June 1900, p77.〕 In the mid-1870s, after Rev. J Straughen took office, the congregation experienced a surge in numbers growing from 38 in August 1875 to 78 in December 1876. During 1876 it became clear that the West Street chapel was too small and the decision was made to erect a new church building. The Rev. Deacon's widow generously gifted the first chapel, and its site including the house, to the church trustees on the condition that they were used by them in Ipswich. Ultimately that property was sold and another on the main street of town purchased for a new church.〔 Tenders for the new church were invited in The Queensland Times on 7 October 1876. The firm Messers McKenzie and Co. was contracted for the brickwork and Messrs MacGregor and Brown for the woodwork.〔〔'Improvements in Ipswich,' The Queensland Times, 3 July 1877.〕 The architect responsible for the design was Richard Gailey, who was a devout Baptist and would become Brisbane's longest-practising and most prolific private architect of the colonial era.〔 Born in Ireland, Gailey trained to be an architect in Londonderry before travelling to Queensland in 1864 and deciding to settle here. He set up as an architect the following year and by 1868 was prospering to a degree that enabled him to marry a woman from Belfast. It is apparently after his wife's conversion to the Baptist faith, that he became a member at the Wharf Street church in Brisbane. For most of the work he did for the Baptists, he gave his services for free; the grandest monument he created for them being the Baptist City Tabernacle on the corner of Wickham Terrace and Upper Edward Street in Brisbane, built in 1889-90. His other notable works include: the Brisbane Courier Building in Brisbane's CBD (1885–87, now demolished), the Regatta Hotel at Toowong (1886), School House at Brisbane Grammar School (1887), the Smellie and Co. warehouse opposite the Brisbane Botanic Gardens (1888–89), the former Bank of New South Wales in Gympie (1890–91), Moorlands at the Wesley Hospital site at Auchenflower (1892) and the Walter Reid and Co. warehouse in Rockhampton (1892–93). At his death in 1924 at the age of 90 he was described as the ''"Doyen of Brisbane Architects"'' by The Brisbane Courier.〔〔'Mr. R. Gailey - Death Yesterday', The Brisbane Courier, 25 April 1924, p. 8.〕 The Ipswich church was the fourth of at least 8 churches or chapels he designed for the Baptists during their greatest period of expansion between 1865 and 1890, and is now the oldest extant one in its original location. The only older church is that in Chapel Street in Nundah, which was built in 1876 to a design by Gailey but later moved from its original site on Fortescue Street in Spring Hill.〔'Baptist Churches on the Move', Queensland Baptist Forum, The Baptist Historical Society of Queensland, No. 73, August 2009, viewed at http://home.pacific.net.au/~dparker/Forum73.htm on 30 April 2013.〕 The simplicity of the Ipswich church design — gable-roofed brick building with engaged piers, round-arched windows filled with stained, leadlight glass (red border and green lights) and gabled porch with decorative balustrade〔1903 image of church featured in the Ipswich Baptist Messenger, Ipswich City Council Library, ID No. 6669.〕 - was typical of Gailey's early work for the Baptists, which otherwise tended to be in timber. His later churches, most notably the City Tabernacle and the Baptist Church on Flinders Parade at Sandgate (1887), are more complex, reflecting the increased strength of the church and the capacity of the congregations they served.〔 On the Separation Day public holiday, 11 December 1876, Rev. J Straughen presided over a ceremony for laying the foundation stone of the new Ipswich church.〔'Laying Foundation Stone of New Church at Ipswich' in The Queenslander, Saturday 16 December 1876, p 28.〕 A sealed bottle containing Ipswich newspapers and clippings, and a copy of a report read at the ceremony by the church secretary, Mr J Fletcher, were put into a prepared place under the foundation stone. Mr E Gregory, a foundation member of the Baptist church in Ipswich who was also responsible for establishing the Ipswich Herald (later The Queensland Times) laid the foundation stone. He used an ivory handled silver trowel, still held by the Ipswich Baptist Church, and engraved by Mr McCuskie of the North Ipswich railway workshops.〔〔 The church was officially opened just over 6 months later on 17 June 1877. It was approximately 25m by 9.8m in plan and about 5.5m high (at the top of its gable) with a corrugated iron roof and a floor of milled boards. Contemporary descriptions of the church state that it could accommodate 350 people.〔The Queensland Times - 'Local and General news', 19 June 1877, 'Public Tea-Meeting', 21 June 1877 & 'Improvements in Ipswich', 3 July 1877.〕 The classical style employed in its design was common in 19th Century commercial and government buildings but relatively rare in churches. Where the classical style was used for a church, it was often by non-conforming denominations such as the Baptists.〔〔Gregory, H. & Pini, G. Religious places in Queensland - An Historical Context Study, A report for the Queensland Heritage Council, December 2003, p. 86.〕 The interior of the Ipswich church followed a layout that was typical of those for a Baptist congregation: designed around a symbolic axis, a raised dais was located in the centre of the southern end with a baptismal font, a fundamental part of Baptist worship, immediately beneath it. The pews were arranged symmetrically about the axis in front of the dais and the font.〔 The new church was completed during a period of economic buoyancy and increased building activity in Ipswich, the colony's "second town" according to the 1876 edition of the Australian Handbook. Queensland had experienced severe economic depression in 1866 with only gradual improvement occurring over the following decade. As the economy improved during the late 1870s, Ipswich entered a period of prosperity.〔University of Queensland, Ipswich Heritage Study: Volumes 1 & 2, prepared for Ipswich City Council, 1992.〕 In July 1877, The Queensland Times noted a considerable number of buildings planned, under construction or recently completed including the Lands Office, a new benevolent asylum (Ipswich Mental Hospital) and the Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company mill. The city's retail and commercial heart centred on Brisbane Street and the area west of Nicholas Street known as "Top of the Town".〔〔Ipswich page on Queensland Places website, http://queenslandplaces.com.au/node/447, viewed 30 April 2013.〕 Baptist Sunday School had commenced at Ipswich by 1864. During 1900 a timber hall for that purpose was built facing Limestone Street on land acquired by the church.〔'Ipswich Baptists', The Queensland Times, 15 December 1900.〕 This building was designed by local architect, George Brockwell Gill. Funds for the hall, together with those to enable renovations to the church also carried out in 1900, were raised from bazaars, interest free loans and donations. The Ladies Work Society played a prominent role in fundraising through the sale of their craft work.〔The Queensland Baptist, 1 February 1901, 21.〕 In 1924 a manse was opened next to the hall and to the rear of the church.〔〔'Ipswich', The Brisbane Courier, 27 October 1924, p.16.〕 After World War I and years of depression when congregation finances were limited, a scheme to substantially renovate the church was put forward in 1937 during the pastoral term of Rev. Gray A Parker. By the following year the remodelled church was complete,〔'Work Finished: Baptist Service of Thanksgiving - Remodelled Church Dedicated', The Queensland Times, 20 June 1938, p6.〕 its "futuristic and perpendicular" facade〔'Ipswich Sets a New Fashion in Church Architecture', The Australian Baptist, 5 July 1938.〕 in an Art Deco style that was popular between the world wars but unusual in churches. The front porch was completely replaced and fitted with stained glass, leadlight windows, with matching ones in the front wall, and all of the exterior walls were rendered. The interior alterations included a full-width polished timber vestibule with stained glass, leadlight windows (now removed, matching the design of other new windows in the facade and featuring an arrow and torch motif) and panelling of the vestry with polished timber. The design was completed by GB Gill, the architect for the Sunday School nearly 40 years previously, while the contractor was Mr HE Wildey. Dedication of the renovated church took place on 19 June 1938, when a number of pieces of church furniture were donated: a pulpit table, Communion chair, 2 pulpit chairs, oak hymn-board, crystal vases, pedestal and pulpit hymn book.〔〔'Renovated Churches', The Courier-Mail, Saturday 18 June 1938, page 7.〕〔Ipswich Baptist Church minutes, 12 October 1938, pp. 131-32.〕 Born in London, Gill emigrated to the colonies in 1886 before settling in Ipswich, taking over an existing practice and establishing himself as an active member of the community for over 50 years before his retirement in 1943. Gill was elected Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1904 and Fellow by 1913. He was its Vice-President from 1914–16 and President from 1918-19.〔 His early works include Brynhyfryd, a grand residence at Blackstone for Lewis Thomas (1889–90), and the original building of Ipswich Girls' Grammar School (1890–91), for which he served as a member of the Board of Trustees and later was board Chairman.〔 Later, more outstanding works in Ipswich, include the City View Hotel (1908), the Cribb and Foote department store (1911) and the Soldiers' Memorial Hall in Nicholas Street (1921).〔State Library of Queensland blog about Queensland places, viewed at http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2013/02/26/queensland-places-soldiers-memorial-hall-ipswich/ on 30 April 2013.〕 Of the 16 buildings and 2 memorials Gill designed that are entered in the Queensland Heritage Register, the Ipswich Club House (1898) and the Hotel Metropole, a block further west of the church on Brisbane Street (1906), are notable examples of his skill with large timber houses and polychrome brickwork respectively.〔 The Art Deco-inspired refurbishment of the Ipswich Baptist Church is stylistically very different from Gill's other work, and it is plausible that he or a member of his office took inspiration from his work in supervising the construction of the Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator (now a theatre) in 1936 at Queens Park in Ipswich. Early in 1937, the year in which the church refurbishment was being planned, Walter Burley Griffin died unexpectedly aged 60 years while working in India.〔〔Peter Harrison, 'Griffin, Walter Burley (1876-1937)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/griffin-walter-burley-443/text11115, accessed 27 April 2013.〕 The allotment adjacent to the church, purchased by the Baptists in about 1940, was dedicated as a war memorial in 1950 by which time it had come to be used informally as a park.〔'Memorial Grounds Officially Opened' The Queensland Times, 27 March 1950.〕 The Rev. JH Bird, who had come to the pastorate in 1947, led a group of volunteers in terracing the area and laying its grass. Concrete steps were set into the terraced faces. On 25 March, the Ipswich Mayor, Alderman JT Finimore, officially opened the park as the Central Baptist War Memorial Grounds.〔 The memorial entrance to the park, a covered gateway with a plaque and wrought iron gates, was erected 4 years after the park was opened and dedicated by Rev. H Kestell Cornish on 25 April 1954.〔The Queensland Times, 26 April 1954.〕 During the ceremony, the entire congregation led by ex-servicemen filed slowly through the gates.〔The Queensland Baptist, 15 June 1954, p.14.〕 The memorial plaque bore the words "A tribute of remembrance to the men and women of this church who fought, suffered and died during the 1939-45 war" and was mounted on the front gable.〔 With a view to the approaching centenary of the Ipswich Baptist congregation, renovations were again undertaken in 1958. The church ceiling had to be replaced, the interior was painted and a cross (now removed) was installed in the apse on the rear wall. The refurbished church was reopened on 15 February 1959.〔 More changes took place in 1979. The platform area in the church was improved and a larger courtyard area was provided at the entrance. A sealed parking area was also established on the top terrace at this time (between the rear of the church and Baptist buildings on Limestone Street).〔 The final alterations to be made to the church by the Baptists were in the late 1990s. Between 1993 and 1994, a larger entrance was made into the church on its eastern side.〔Image in Ipswich City Council library collection, No. 6282.〕 A large covered area was added to this extension in 1998.〔 In 2004, the Baptists sold the church complex and built a new place of worship in the Ipswich suburb of Brassall. The former church stood vacant for a number of years, becoming a target for vandals, before McDonald's Australia Limited purchased it along with the other properties that had constituted the former Baptist Complex with its church and memorial ground on Brisbane Street, and the Sunday School hall and manse on Limestone Street.〔 In 2009, McDonald's demolished the hall and manse, and built a retaining wall between that site and the memorial ground and church, in order to construct a restaurant and car park on Limestone Street. It transferred the memorial ground, gate and church to Ipswich City Council in 2012; council then carrying out a substantial refurbishment of the site to create a youth theatrical venue called Studio 188 that operates as an adjunct to the Ipswich Civic Centre.〔Speech of Shayne Neuman, State Member for Blair read during House Debate in Queensland Parliament on 29 October 2012, viewed 30 April 2013 at http://www.openaustralia.org/debates/?id=2012-10-29.140.1. The place is listed as a Character Place in Schedule 2 of the Ipswich City Council planning scheme.〕 The design for the transformation of the church and its grounds were completed by Gibson Architects, an Ipswich firm.〔〔Viewed at http://www.gibsonarchitects.com.au on 30 April 2013.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baptist Church, Ipswich」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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