Church buildings often seem the only stable elements in our changing streetscapes. Mt Evelyn’s churches, on the other hand, have been continually relocated and repurposed.
Mt Evelyn’s first church was the Union Church, opened in 1920 on what is now Watkins Crescent. Union Churches were usually established where congregations were too small to support a church for each Protestant denomination. Four churches worshipped there in the first year alone.
‘The church in the wildwood’ was bought out by the Methodists in the 1920s and became Uniting Church in 1977.
The Anglican Church, after meeting initially in the Mechanics’ Institute, had a building moved up from Lilydale by bullock dray. Installed in Birmingham Road, it was dedicated as St Mark’s in 1924.
The Presbyterian Church, also on Birmingham Road, was constructed by local builder George Pitt and dedicated in 1933. The original St Mary’s Catholic Church was built on Monbulk Road in 1939, a few doors down from the roundabout.
The Christian Catholics, an Evangelical sect founded in Chicago in 1896, had a church on the Channel Road/Clematis Road corner from the 1940s.
In 1952 the Church of Christ was built in Hereford Road near the Red Robin Milk Bar. The former Montrose Church of Christ (built 1909) migrated along Swansea Road in 1985, to become the chapel at Chateau Wyuna.
The Dutch community established the Reformed Church on Birmingham Road. The original building was the disused canteen from the Upper Yarra Dam construction. Moved to Mt Evelyn in 1953, it still stands as part of the church complex.
What became of all these places of worship?
St Mary’s Catholic Church moved to a larger site on Clegg Road in the 1960s. The original building in Monbulk Road is now a private home.
The Church of Christ burned down in the 1980s. A larger site was purchased on Monbulk Road, where the present ‘mud-brick church’ was built. The name changed to Careforce and now Discovery Church. There is a house on the Hereford Road site.
Three other churches were sold: St Mark’s Anglican, the Uniting Church, and the Christian Catholic Church. All three are now private homes. The denominations are no longer represented in Mt Evelyn.
The Reformed Church remains on its original site, in a modern brick building.
Only the Presbyterian Church continues to worship in its original building, and will celebrate its 90th anniversary in July this year.
