Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text is the original citation considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Information in square brackets indicates modifications made after the paper was considered by the NZHPT Board. St David's Church, at 4 Britannia Street, Petone, was built in 1889. It represents a major step towards consolidation of the Presbyterian church in Petone, which had come close to being abandoned in 1887. In that year, the Wellington Presbytery offered its support and the members of the Petone congregation were persuaded to continue. The construction of a church building gave them a focus for their endeavours. The site chosen for St David's was located just 500 metres inland from the beach where the very first Presbyterian service in New Zealand was held on 23 February 1840. A noted early minister of the church was the Reverend Alexander Thomson, ordained in August 1889, who spent his entire ministry at this church until his retirement 25 years later. He was involved in the establishment of the Petone West School and also had a strong association with the Petone Technical College. The nearby manse was erected in his time, in 1893. Despite the dramatic origins of St David's, few of its original records have survived. [However, the identities of the architect and builder are confirmed by reporting in the Evening Post. It was designed by noted architect (and Danish Consul) Christian Julius Toxward, and constructed by Petone builder Mr Crofts, with pulpits, pews and fittings by George Carter.] The Church is Colonial Gothic in style, as shown by the lancet windows, bell tower, pinnacles and buttresses, which are all executed in timber. The steep-pitched roof is another indicator. Internally, the Church has a finely-built barrel-vaulted ceiling which extends the full length of the building, constructed from tongue and groove timber. It is supported by pairs of ornately-carved timber brackets. The walls are simple tongue and groove and there is little other ornament. Some of the windows contain coloured glass; there is a single stained glass window donated to the memory of Thomas Cook by the Cook family in 1905. Scattered memorial plaques are located around the walls, some of which were obtained from the memorial rooms that were erected at the east end in the late 1940s and subsequently dismantled. One of these rooms was a Second World War memorial, while the other was in memory of an Elder, Graham Thoms Aitken, who died in September 1946. Other memorials include one to those killed in the First World War. Since 1970, as a result of church amalgamations, the local Samoan community has used the church for worship and some of the more recent changes date from this time. Storm damage and wood rot were responsible for eventual loss of pinnacles at the west end of the church, but these were replaced in 1993, together with some of the weatherboard cladding, buttresses and piles. The west end entrance porch was extended outwards and opened up in 1994 to form a carriage porch so cars could unload their occupants under shelter. Other changes include linkages to the modern hall at the east end of the building via passageways cut through the east wall (in 1987) - these are partly screened by the organ pipes and the seats for Church Elders in front of the congregation.

This rectangular church is approximately 30m long and 11m wide. The west end is the most ornate; a triangular gable framed by a pair of simple columns each capped with a pinnacle. In the centre there is a large tripartite lancet window with hood mould. Above the apex of the gable is a small bell tower with a pyramidal roof. The former entrance porch has been extended outwards as a carriage porch, but with the previous decoration largely maintained. The only additions to the sides of the church are the multiple buttresses between the lancet windows. Internally, the church forms an undivided rectangle, and is relatively plain. The most significant feature is the shallow-arched, barrel-vaulted roof, with ornately-decorated, massive timber brackets (hammerbeams), each pair being linked by bracing rods across the church. Some of the lancet windows contain panes of coloured glass; there is a single very ornate memorial stained glass window on the northern side. The decorated pipe organ is free-standing out from the eastern end behind where an altar would be in a Catholic or Anglican church. The extreme eastern end wall of the church has been pierced in recent years by a number of openings which lead to services and the modern hall behind the building. High at the eastern end are a joined pair of relatively small lancet windows. The roof of the church is covered with brown Decramastic tiles.

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A fully referenced version of this report is available from the Central Region of the NZHPT. Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.