Scots Kirk - Dr Fullerton's Church

Opposite the manse discussed in yesterday's post, is this church, specifically a Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Pitt Street, and Hay Street, in the Haymarket. The third such Presbyterian church established in Sydney Town, by Dr John Dunmore Lang, fire-breathing dragon that he was!

Nowadays, there is absolutely no evidence that a church ever existed on this site. It would have been about where that newspaper kiosk is today, where the exiting tram comes down from the upper concourse of Central Railway station. I cannot pin down an exact date for the demolition of the church, but it was between 1899 and December 1902. The State government of the day resumed everything that stood in the way of the new station, including: the Benevolent Asylum the old steam tram depot a police barracks the Convent of the Good Shepherd (built on the site of Carters' Barracks) small domestic terraces small retail terraces the Scots Kirk, and the Devonshire Street Cemetery (aka the Sandhills).

The article from the "Illustrated News" in June 1870 gives a hint that all was not well, and perhaps the manse was being leased, or even sold. By then, Dr Fullerton's family had doubled in number, and he had moved to premises in Elizabeth Street, not all that far away. The old Kerry photographic image on the right (1872) is leading us from George Street, east along Hay Street. I have added text to show both the manse and Fullerton's church. My three shots taken at the end of June, show the disrespect that ignorance engenders. The people scurrying across Pitt St at the lights, and then up the tram exit to the railway, are just going about their business, oblivious to the history beneath their feet. Once, they get up to the rail platform, they will have no idea that the platforms lie atop an old cemetery (1819-1902).

Two more images to give colour to an unglamourous part of my city. An old 1906 shot, looking south along Pitt Street from its intersection with Campbell Street. The railway station was operational, albeit minus its clock-tower, the resumptions, and demolitions, dun'n'dusted. And on the right, my shot looking in the opposite direction, north along Pitt Street from the bend just before Eddy Avenue. My next post will trace the life and times of Dr James Fullerton. Did he run a "marriage shop", or has he been verballed all these years?