St Mary's Church, South Perth

This white vision is the St Mary the Virgin Anglican Church in South Perth.

According to the history of the church, the Church of England had land in South Perth as early as 1860 but it wasn't until 1895 that a weatherboard church was built south of Perth Water. The original land had been sold ten years earlier and thsi church was established on a block donated by politian and newspaper owner J Winthorp Hackett.

Three years later the land was reclaimed by the Government for a zoological garden but the church was given a new block on top of Zoo Hill and built a new wooden church. The parishioners did not like climbing the hill to attend services so the building was moved to a new site and served as St mary's until the late 1920s.

At that time a new block of land was purchased, again on top of a hill, and a the design for a new church was commissioned from architect Herbert Parry. The foundation stone was laid on 3 May 1931.

The tower with a representation of Christ on top was added in the late 1960s. I think it works well with the rest of the church building

In 1936 a parish hall was built next door to the church..

The concrete front to the hall has three vertical windows with 'St Mary's Hall' incised in the wall above them. The walls are curved with a series of seven speedlines flowing from the windows around into the body of the building.

The hall was extended in 1956 but the concrete front remains unchanged except for a lick of green paint to bring out the recessed lines.