Mount Lofty Uniting Church; Former Mount Lofty Congregational Church

Text: Karen Agutter

Images: Rod Kemp

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The Church and Lych Gate in 1983

The Mt Lofty Uniting/Congregational Church, 1 Orley Avenue Stirling, was designed and built by Adelaide architect Daniel Garlick. The first services were held in 1882 with the Adelaide Observer [14 January 1882] noting that although small the church was very ‘neat and suitable in every way’. Despite the early difficulties associated with appointing a permanent Pastor, and the depression of the 1890s, the Church, and the surrounding community, continued to grow with the porch being added in 1900, the Sunday School Hall in 1911, and the addition of the lych gate which was opened in March 1919 as a memorial to the lives lost in the Great War 1914-1918.

Newspapers throughout the decades report on the regular weddings held at the church and many a photo, including this one (1983) of MLDHS member Rod Kemp and his wife Jenny (nee Pratt) were taken in and around the Lych Gate.

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In 1977 the Church amalgamated with the Stirling District Uniting Parish but continued to operate until the completion of the Sunset Rock Uniting Church at Stirling. The building was sold circa 1986 and is now in private hands.

Here is an article about the historic pipe organ which had its home in this church

Further Reading: The Church with the Lych Gate, Tom Dyster available MLDHS Archive.Paragraph

Do you have memories/photos of this church and the community it served? Contact us at mldhsgateways@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au or drop into the History Centre at the Coventry Library, 63 Mount Barker Road, Stirling.