AUCKLAND’S FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29268, 28 July 1960, Page 20

AUCKLAND’S FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

98-Year-Old Building Being Wrecked

(N«» ZaalonO Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 26.

The first Baptist church in Aucktand, which in its 98 years changed hands almost as often as it boused colourful characters, is being wrecked. The building woe erected on the corner of Wellesley street weet and Federal street in 1862. The church sold the premises, which had originally incorporated a schoolhouse, when the Queen Street Tabernacle was built Part of the old building then became the headquarters of the New Zealand Dairy Association. In 1911 the first Auckland continuous picture theatre was opened in the building. At another time, the Auckland branch of the New Zealend Socialist Party set itself up in the building, which had then become known as the Federal street Hall. A bandful of the branch members solved their bousing problem by “dossing down" in the party rooms—among them a young man named Peter Fraser who was later to become Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Probably the most notable claim to fame the old building had was when it became the scene of Mr Fraser’s first venture into high finance: he pawned the group's alarm clock for bread and butter when its funds hit rock bottom.