Landmark Ponsonby church seeks a new owner

A historic church which has been a prominent landmark on Ponsonby Rd for the past 138 years is set for a change of use following a decision to put the property on the market.

St John’s Church plus two adjoining buildings and the 2,462 sq m of land they are located on at 229A Ponsonby Road are being offered for sale with vacant possession by the Auckland Samoan Parish of the Methodist Church of New Zealand.

Bayleys Real Estate has been appointed to tender the property, closing Wednesday April 15, unless sold prior.

Alan Haydock, director of Bayleys Auckland city and fringe division, says the church has catered for the changing community needs of Ponsonby and its surrounding residents since it held its first service on April 30, 1882. It became the founding church of New Zealand's first Methodist Samoan parish around 50 years ago.

“With the inflow of Pacific Islanders to Auckland's inner city suburbs, particularly Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, from the 1960s, the district synod of the Methodist Church saw the need for a centre that met the social and cultural needs of its Samoan members. St John's Church became the headquarters of an Auckland Samoan fellowship and two further substantial extensions were added to the side and rear of the church in the 1970s and 80s,” says Haydock.

“The reality is that most of the church’s congregation are now based in South Auckland. This in combination with the substantial increase in underlying land values along Ponsonby Rd has resulted in their decision to sell. The proceeds will be reinvested in providing continuing services for Samoan parishioners closer to where most of them live.”

Haydock says the original church located on the property’s Ponsonby Rd frontage has heritage protection and will remain one of the suburb’s enduring landmarks. It has an Historic Place Category B classification.

However, the substantial rectangular shaped site, which also has frontage onto Arthur St at the rear, and its two different Auckland Unitary Plan zonings offers plenty of add value opportunities for the next owner, he says.

“The rear portion of the site adjoining Arthur St, a quiet, predominantly upmarket housing street, has a residential zoning. The land’s elevated, north-easterly aspect could lend itself to one or possibly two large dwellings on Arthur St which would provide sweeping CBD and harbour views from their upper levels.

“The front part of the property on Ponsonby Rd, on which the church is located, has a Town Centre zoning which permits a wide range of commercial, community as well as residential uses.”

The Heritage New Zealand website describes the church as a fine example of a timber ecclesiastical building in the Gothic Revival style: “St John's Church has high aesthetic importance for its visual aspect and its contribution to the streetscape of Ponsonby Rd, and as a valued Auckland landmark. It is also aesthetically significant for its ornate interior.”

The original church is a rectangular building of approximately 300 sq m and has a gable roof, with Marseilles pattern clay roof tiles. Along each side of the building are a series of Gothic windows, some of which contain stain glass panels.

The interior still has its original tongue and groove timber lined ceiling and walls plus ornate timber roof trusses decorated with Gothic quatrefoil motifs. The trusses are supported on elegant brackets and corbels. The church has a 12.8 metre stud height at peak, lowering to six metres along the side walls.

“This is stunning, character space which would appeal to either an owner occupier or add value investor keen to preserve and enhance an important part of Auckland’s history,” Haydock says. “It could be of interest to another church or community group but it is now becoming increasingly common for churches to be converted into alternative commercial or residential uses.”

Possible commercial activities could include a gallery, restaurant, theatre or events centre or character office or retail space, he says. The Town Centre zoning also allows permits residential use although this or any other change of use would require council consent.

The first of two additions to the church building was undertaken in 1977 and comprised an extension of approximately 340 sq m along the northern side of the church to accommodate a Methodist Samoan community and cultural centre. This has a Polynesian flavour with a brick exterior and wooden flooring plus large wooden beams in the lounge areas. It also incorporates a substantial kitchen plus toilets and an upstairs class room area with an adjoining open deck.

A concrete block building of approximately 600 sq m with a separate entrance was added at the rear of the church in 1989. This contains a large community hall with a multi-room basement below which has been used for a play centre and Sunday school rooms.

Damien Bullick says both the added buildings are in need of refurbishment and modernisation but could be adapted for a variety of uses. Alternatively, council consent could be sought to demolish them and use the land for other purposes. There is also undeveloped land along the southern side of the property which currently provides outdoor parking for approximately 24 car parks.

St John’s Church was one of several places of worship built during the late nineteenth century to serve the growing and varied religious needs of the expanding suburb of Ponsonby. Ponsonby's 1874 population of 1,640 had more than doubled by 1881, and was to double again by 1886. This was the result of a speculative surge of house-building on Auckland's suburban fringe, which occurred during a lengthy economic boom in the 1870s and early 1880s.

In 1876, members of the Methodist (also known as Wesleyan) faith took steps to provide a place of worship in Ponsonby and part of the present St John's site was purchased and a small weatherboard chapel opened for worship on November 11, 1877. A year later a gallery was built to provide more seating but within another three years the building was too small and another property adjoining the chapel was bought to allow for expansion. Plans were prepared for a large new church seating 550 people and the foundation stone of the current structure was laid on November 2, 1881.

Costing £2,240, the new building was constructed by James Heron, a foundation trustee of the church, to the design of Edward Bartley, a notable late nineteenth-century architect who designed a variety of ecclesiastical and other landmark buildings around Auckland.

Prominent local figures involved as foundation trustees of St John's included Joseph Liston Wilson, proprietor of the New Zealand Herald, and George Winstone, co-founder of Winstone Brothers' haulage and quarrying firm. Nationally, the Methodist denomination grew in strength during the 1880s, peaking just after the turn of the twentieth century at which time an estimated one in ten New Zealanders was Methodist. During this period, St John's Church was the centre of the religious, cultural and social life of its members and a prior to World War 1 even had its own cricket team.

Modifications were made to the church interior in the early 1900s, including the accommodation of a pipe organ and the creation of vestries at the eastern end of the church in 1903. As well as work undertaken to strengthen the church tower and sheath the spire in copper, electric lighting was also installed. Lighting is now provided by 12 chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

Like other churches in the older suburbs of New Zealand's larger cities, St John's suffered a substantial decrease in its congregation following the Second World War before undergoing a revival in the latter quarter of the 20th century when it became a Samoan Methodist parish.

Bullick says the property’s high profile location in a central part of bustling Ponsonby Rd means it is well positioned for the next chapter in its long life.

“It’s very rare for a property of this size to come up for sale along Ponsonby Rd. It brings with it a range of options, including occupying or leasing the existing buildings, residential conversion or the development of new buildings. There are many opportunities worth exploring here.”

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