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The Catholic Church in Island, Houghton and Owhiro Bays has been an independent parish since 1920, but has centred on three separate church buildings. Several other Catholic institutions have given this religion a local visibility not apparent in many other parts of New Zealand, and which belies its status as a religion with proportionately few adherents in a country where most who profess a religion are Protestant. The loss of the most prominent of these buildings – Erskine College - highlights the importance of this heritage to the area, and brings to mind much that is already lost. Southern Bays Historical Society life member Patricia Hutchison wrote a parish history in 1990, with an update several years later. The information in ths brief article is drawn from those histories and some observations of the author.
Detail from postcard c 1912 – taken from hill west of Derwent St, looking north east over the site of the present supermarket in Medway Street and toward 75 The Parade, where the original Catholic Church (now St Sava’s) can be seen in its then-prominent position above the new suburb of Island Bay. The photographic effect makes 75 the Parade seem closer than it is to the shops.
75 The Parade in 1980; Pohutukawa trees showing the impact of some determined silviculture.
The Catholic Church’s first church in the Southern Bays opened in 1906, at 75 The Parade. It was one of five Mass centres served by the Society of Mary priests based at St Anne’s in Newtown. The Marists supported the Catholics of Island Bay from Newtown until diocesan priests took over St Anne’s in 1920. The Marists were to continue at Island Bay until 1988. Their first local base was the still-standing large presbytery built at the back of 175 the Parade, fronting Clyde St.
The original church building and presbytery is still there, and is now the home of the Serbian Orthodox church of St Sava. By coincidence the outside of the church is painted blue and white, colours closely associated with its Marist founders. When it was first built the church was visible right up the valley from the south and from the north as people approached the suburb. It was, however, quickly obscured by houses as the community grew. Today it stands behind a fine avenue of pohutukawa, and large gates. Inside, as an orthodox church, it lacks the pews typical of western churches, but retains a large ‘bishop’s chair’ which was part of the furnishings of the original church, heavily carved and featuring the traditional emblem of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There are now many icons on display, their bright colours well seen in the brightness from the original north and south-facing rows of tall windows. Its polished wooden floor appears to come from the same stock of matai which has floored many of the homes of Island Bay. The church was enlongated somewhat in 1940 but in form is basically the same as it was when first opened 106 years ago.
Beside the church is the church hall. This is a very old building which was the original home of the Catholic primary School, then, as now known as St Francis de Sales. Later, for some 50 years, it was known as St Madeline Sophie’s, after the founder of the order responsible for Erskine College, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. It stood immediate below Erskine College and was later moved to its present site.
Erskine College remains a dominating architechtural presence in the valley, and gave the Catholic Church a physically obvious presence in this part of Wellington. It was founded in 1905, as the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Island Bay. The name was changed to Erskine College in the late 1960s to avoid confusion with Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt. The Convent catered for children from infancy right through to secondary, and for many years was a boarding school only. Eventually it became a secondary college only, with both boarding and day girls.
The original Catholic primary school building, later moved to 75 The Parade, where it still stands as a hall for what is now St Sava’s church, can be seen on the left.
Original plans for Erskine College chapel: Wellington City Council archives
Erskine chapel - Image via Fred Holden 2025©
It is a remarkably tall building for a suburban New Zealand structure, with four stories. It is interesting that it was not the secondary school attended by many Catholic girls from the Southern Bays, as for many years it was a boarding school only and pupils tended to be from out-of-town. This changed later when day scholars were accepted, although many of the local girls went to St Mary's in Thorndon or St Catherine's in Kilbirnie. Erskine was a boarding and day school which served the needs of Catholic professionals and others who wanted their daughters to have a prestige education. As well as a school it was also the home (convent) for members of the Society of the Sacred Heart. The school, and the order, remained there until its closure in 1985. In 1930 the chapel was added, giving a glimpse of European gothic splendour in the midst of New Zealand suburbia. The Wellington District Plan makes it clear what a loss these buildings would be to New Zealand:
‘Erskine College Main Block (Convent Building) and the later St Anthony’s Wing (1916), and Chapel of the Sacred Heart (1929), were designed by John Swan, Wellington’s most important designer of that time of secular and Catholic architecture. The design of the College is an original symmetrical adaptation of an early Tudor fortified manor house, a unique style in New Zealand. The Main Block (Convent Building) has a clearly resolved plan-form in the shape of an ‘H’, a clarity reflected in the robust monumental forms, elements and symmetry of the elevations. The ecclesiastical purpose of the building is simply stated in the cruciforms of the corbelled chimneys, parapets, hood moulds and decorated gables which are all redolent of Neo-Tudor style. The central verandahs are an interesting local modification’ ...
‘The Chapel is one of the finest and most scholarly French Gothic style chapel interiors known to exist in New Zealand. It incorporates architectural detailing of the highest quality. This is evident in the ribbed vaulted ceiling (unique for its period), the elegance and lightness of the half-columns and elongated springers. The Chapel contains art works of the highest quality made of the best possible materials. These works, notably the German stained glass windows and statuary, the marble altar and tabernacle, shrines and timber panelling form an integral and essential part of the overall architectural composition.
‘Erskine College Chapel was classified ‘A’ by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on 19 March 1987 under Section 35(1)(a) of the Historic Places Act 1980, as having such historical significance and architectural quality that its preservation is regarded as essential. These buildings now have a Heritage Rating of Category 1 & 2 respectively’.
(Wellington City District Plan Page 21 Appendix/44 Last Amended 5 July 2011 Heritage Operative 27/07/00)
Erskine is now a serious earthquake risk, and disused, after some time as an art school, and, famously, as a set for the Peter Jackson movie The Frighteners. Restoration would be massively expensive, and it is hard to see to what profitable use the building could be put. Time and neglect are taking their toll, and with the buildings unable to be used because of the earthquake risk, its future as a local landmark must be in danger. Its loss would destroy a link with the past of the area, and a point of visual continuity. Its status as a symbol of the religious values and practices of the past would be gone, and we would be the poorer for its loss.
Already, on the other side of the valley, the other outstanding local Catholic building has gone; the Home of Compassion’s original 1907 building was demolished in the 1980s and replaced by the present complex. The Home remains a living institution, unlike Erskine, with the Sisters of Compassion continuing their work from their Island Bay base. Recent tree pruning allows a glimpse of the once-prominent Home of Compassion to again feature in the Island Bay streetscape. Although the hospital is closed, the sisters continue to support the needy through many activities in Island Bay and elsewhere. The Home includes a magnificent modern chapel, looking out on the hillside of the Manawa Karioi restoration project and Tapu-te-ranga marae lands. The chapel includes stained glass stations of the cross by the renowned Island Bay artist the late John Drawbridge. A great deal of effort is being put into the cause of sainthood for their founder, Island Bay’s most prominent resident, Sr Mary Joseph (Suzanne) Aubert. A new visitors’ centre allows visitors to see her history, and her eventual canonisation as New Zealand’s first saint will bring new life to the Home, its faith and its works.
Turnbull Library Ref: 1/2-056702-F Wedding of Luigi Noaro and Maria Barnao, early June, Humber Street, Island Bay,
Further down the valley towards the sea is the site of what was for a time a second Catholic church in Island Bay: the Humber St hall. This hall was built in 1907 as a private venture to rent out for events. It was purchased by the Catholic parish in 1920, and leased out until 1931, when it became The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. It was a ‘second’ church, and the church on The Parade continued as the main parish church. It was, however, popular as a larger venue for weddings and with those Catholics who lived towards the sea, including many of the Italian members of the congrregation, as there was less need to trudge along The Parade against the northerly or, worse, back again against the southerly. Its use as a church was ended by the earthquake of 1942, and it was sold for private storage use. It remains a shell of its once-grand self, and is ‘red-stickered’ as a result of the latest round of earthquake concerns. There is no campaign to ‘save’ it. (See Southern Bays No. 3 2007 Not really the Town Hall) After the closure of Holy Name, all services were held again in the original Church at 75 The Parade.
The most prominent Catholic building is of course the present St Francis de Sales Church, with its modernist bell-tower visible as soon as Island Bay is approached from the north. It was built in 1966 on the site of the elegant old McMenamin homestead on the corner of Clyde and Mersey streets, which had been bought by the Church in 1946, and run as a refugee home, housing young Polish refugees. (See Southern Bays No 3 2007).
It is constructed in ferro-cement, across the road from the now-demolished Methodist church, which was the first in New Zealand to use that method. The church has a striking, fan-shaped design, converging towards a central altar, behind which a 130,000-piece mosaic of the crucifixion is lit from above by skylights. On the rear wall, facing north to Mersey Street, there is a modernist window depicting St Francis de Sales. It is not in stained glass, but in polyester resin. The Italian link is established by the use of Italian marble for the altars. Two statues are also Italian, and a statue of St Anthony and the smaller of the two bells in the tower are from the old church on The Parade. There is a huge contrast between this Church, reflecting the values and style of the church of the late 1900s, with the traditionalist values seen in the Erskine chapel. After the church was completed a home for priests (a presbytery) was built alongside, and joined to the church by a covered way. This allowed the old Clyde Street presbytery to be sold along with the old church to the Serbian Orthodox Church. In recent years, a statue of St Francis de Sales has been erected in front of the church.
The McMenamin homestead
The first Catholic primary school building, as noted above, was on the grounds of Erskine and the building was later moved to 75 The Parade where it became a hall for the church. Because the first school was too small to accommodate the growing number of children attending, a new school was built at the top of Avon Street. It opened in 1926, named after Madeleine Sophie, the founder of the order responsible for Erskine, and then a recently canonised saint.
It was a large brick building, and catered for the needs of rather more girls than boys because from 1929 boys above standard 4 (year 6) went to the new Marist Brothers School in Newtown. This was extended down to standard 2 in 1932. Fifty years later the Marists Brothers school closed, and the school returned to its full primary co-ed status. A new classroom block was built in 1960. In 1968, because of overcrowding, new entrants started at what was to be a temporary side-school based at the Home of Compassion’s little school, Pius X. This continued for 16 years. In 1983, state standards for school construction had to be met to allow integration into the state system, and a new school was built to replace the old. The old school in Avon St across the road from Erskine, was demolished, after a huge amount of discussion about the problems of so little playground space, the lack of room for extension and the brick building’s need for extensive maintenance. Bells and brickwork from the old school are incorporated in the new school, beside the present Church, renamed St Francis de Sales, to stress its future integration with the Parish.
One other building in the area was known by some in Houghton Bay as a ‘Catholic church’, but wasn’t. It was a very small, shed-sized building at 64 Cave Road which was used by a priest based at Kilbirne Parish for private services. It was never formally recognised by the Church (capital ‘C’) as a church for the people of Houghton Bay, and nor was recognition sought. When the priest moved to the Wairarapa, the building moved with him.
A teacher at St Dominic's School for the Deaf in Island Bay probably in 1949 or 1950, shown but not named in a National Film Unit film clip available on the online encyclopedia Te Ara. / Two sisters at the Home of Compassion 10 Dec 1957 Evening Post newspaper Ref: EP/1957/4824-F
As well, there have been the homes of various groups of religious sisters (‘nuns’), whose distinctive attire added to the ‘Catholic’ aura of Island Bay. The members of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, were based at Erskine, and in the 1970s those involved with the primary school had a house at 91 Cyde Street. Sacred Heart Sisters were at at 169 The Parade (next to the library) from 1983 until 2006.
The Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion were, of course, based at the Home of Compassion. The Dominican Sisters were based at 15 Dover Street from 1944 until 1953 where they ran St Dominic’s School for the Deaf. The school moved to Feilding, and closed finally in 1989. The Missionary Sisters of St Peter Claver have been based at the corner of Mersey and Clyde St since 1952 and are still here. The Little Company of Mary moved to the Parish in 1986 after many years at Calvary Hospital. They were the founders of the Mary Potter hospice. They have now moved on. Their house at 192 The Parade is now owned by the Sisters of Compassion. The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (known as the ‘Leper Sisters’, or SMSMs) were in Tiber Street briefly from 1996 to 2004.
There are other Catholic buildings in Island Bay of course: the hundreds of homes of parishioners, past and present. It makes sense that the Church would concentrate on the needs of people, and withdraw from or replace their buildings to meet those changing needs. But in the process a landscape incorporating Catholic religious elements has become a part of the fabric of Island Bay.
There will be some irony if the impending canonisation of Suzanne Aubert, and the inevitable rise of tourism by pilgrims visiting her places of residence coincides with the loss of Erskine College. Erskine was of course run by a different order, and for very different purposes than the work of Mother Aubert. But it formed a part of the same local community, and the same local network of Church institutions. There have been many suggestions for a future use of the old college: will sainthood for a local nun bring the investment needed for saving Erskine College?
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