City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2Figure 70Laying foundation stone at Holy TrinityAnglican Church, Thornbury, 1916.[DHE, ID558]PresbyterianThe Presbyterians did not have a presence in Darebin until 1870, when they commencedworshipping in the new Northcote Methodist Church. In 1874 they built a manse for theirminister on the corner of Ross and Cunningham Streets, and a weatherboard church inWestgarth Street in 1876. Although the Northcote Presbyterian community was small, theirminister, Rev. Duncan Fraser, was influential. It was he who initiated the Northcote HealthLeague, which eventually succeeded in ridding Northcote of its noxious trades and forming theBorough of Northcote, as discussed above (‘Glimpses of Our Past’,1988:16; Lemon, 1983:72).The Presbyterians branched out from Westgarth Street, to commence a church in David StreetSouth in 1892, and further churches in Regent and Reservoir in the 1920s (Carroll & Rule,1985:111-12).Figure 71Presbyterian Church,40-42 James Street, Northcote, 1894.[DHE, ID 365]Roman CatholicLike the Presbyterians, the Catholics were in a minority in nineteenth century Darebin andwere late to establish parishes. In 1887, Bradford Hall in High Street was made available forthe celebration of Mass for Preston’s Catholics. The first Catholic Church, Sacred Heart in BellStreet, was a wooden building, opened by Archbishop Carr in 1889. The building was replacedwith the present large brick church in 1926. The old wooden church was moved to ViolaStreet Reservoir and became St Gabriel’s (Forster, 1968:29; Carroll & Rule, 1985:112-3).102