page_title: St Stephen's Church, Ipswich
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St Stephen's Church, Ipswich / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of a plaque at St Stephen's Church at Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The plaque commemorates the Women's Guild and the planting of cypress trees at the front entry to the church in May 1941.
context_page_description: St Stephen's Church & Hall is a heritage-listed Presbyterian churchyard at 22 Limestone Street, Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Joseph Backhouse and built from 1865 to 1978. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: St Stephens Presbyterian Church stands as the second church to be constructed on the current site in 1864 - 1865. This striking gothic style brick church was designed by architect Joseph Backhouse and continues to be the place of worship for one the oldest congregations in Ipswich.
  The first Presbyterian church service held in Ipswich was by Dr. John Dunmore Lang in December 1844. On 19 October 1851 the Reverend Walter Ross McLeod, of the United Presbyterian Church of South Brisbane, preached to a congregation of 150 people, the largest of any church congregation to that date in Ipswich. Following the induction of the Rev. William Lambie Nelson as minister for Ipswich on 30 August 1853, the congregation began to work towards a permanent worship place for the "Scots Church of Ipswich". By early November 1855 a church, 40 by 26 feet (12.2 by 7.9 m) and with a square tower, had been completed according to the plans and specifications drawn out by Mr John Petrie.
  The official grant of the land on which the church stood, at the corner of Limestone and Gordon Streets, was not made by the New South Wales Government until 30 December 1858. On 22 February 1859 there were two further grants of adjacent land, for a school house and manse, bringing the total to one acre. (The separation of Queensland as an independent colony did not occur until December 1859.)
  Prominent members of the Established Church of Scotland at that time were Arthur Macalister, later Premier of Queensland, John Pettigrew, William Hendren, William Craies and Hugh Nelson (later Sir Hugh). The church took on the name of St Stephens in 1862. This early church proved to have faulty foundations, and had to be replaced.
  The present St Stephen's church was erected during the time of the Reverend Samuel Wilson, who arrived in 1863, also the year that the twelve independent Presbyterian Church of Scotland congregations united into the one Presbyterian Church of Queensland, with the Rev. Wilson being appointed the first moderator of the united church.
  The foundation stone for the new church was laid by the Hon Arthur Macalister in August 1865. The architect for the new building was Joseph Backhouse, brother of Benjamin Backhouse who designed Ipswich Grammar School. It has been suggested that Joseph Backhouse only supervised the construction of the church under designs made by his brother Benjamin, however this not substantiated. Joseph Backhouse was an architect in Ipswich in 1864-65, and was the town surveyor for the Ipswich Municipal Council in 1865-67. Contractors were Farley, Renny and McHugh.
  In 1911-12 the church was virtually rebuilt owing to foundation problems which meant that the walls had to be replaced. The steeple and sessions house were retained in original condition, the roof raised, and two porticos were added at that time. The architect was George Brockwell Gill, and the contractor John Whitehead. The foundations still had problems, and in 1958 the church underpinnings were shored up by planting six metre pyramids of concrete under the building. The transepts were included at that time. However, the sessions house was not underpinned in 1958. In 1978 the sessions house was dismantled brick by brick and a new sessions house, incorporating a kitchen and new offices, was erected in the same place adjacent to, but not structurally adjoining, the existing building. A number of the stained glass windows depict the development of the Presbyterian Church and one came from the original St Andrew's Church in Wickham Terrace, Brisbane.
  The foundation stone for the church manse was laid on 12 August 1879, and the building opened in January 1880. The manse was located to the east of the church and it was recently relocated to an acreage property at Anstead. The church still owns the land where the manse had stood and a modern shop building now stands on the land with the rear of the building being used as a worship centre.
  Tenders for the erection of a Sabbath School, or Hall, were called for in 1888 on an allotment of land south of the church granted by James Ivory
caption: Women's Guild Plaque to Alice Kirke
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