Stawell Baptist Church

The Stawell Baptist Church is an important architectural landmark in the heart of Stawell.

Built back in 1869, what makes this structure so important is that it’s one of the last remaining examples of a true Welsh Baptist Church.

Stawell Baptist Church, Sunday Worship Times, Services & History, VIC

The church’s brick wall is, in fact, the earliest in all of Victoria. Despite its age, the building has been very well maintained. Other reasons why this is a significant landmark is because it features designs unique to the Baroque Revival and Victorian High Renaissance style.

Some of these include its one storey height, parapeted gable roof, a bracketed pediment capping the centrepiece, Classical façade, and Roman bases. Other notable qualities of the Stawell Baptist Church include the memorial tablet located on top of the front doors, front round-arched door, plain recessed opening, treated masonry piers and its staggered joints, quarry stone base, cornices, blockings, and particularly outstanding interior fabric.

Historically speaking, the church is significant as well because of its ties to the Welsh Baptist Church development. It is also associated with Bendigo architect Robert Alexander Love, Sandhurst, Pleasant Creek, and the pulpit window creator Messrs Fergusson, Urie and Lyon of Melbourne. Meanwhile, WJ Rees and WJ Philpott designed the cedar honouring board lettering.

Stawell Baptist Church is located at 15-17 Scallian Street in Stawell.