St Patricks's Square history
History of St Patrick's Square |
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19th century changes
St Patrick's Cathedral: 19th century
The change to the
layout of this area of Section 18 must have been made after May 1841, when
Bishop Pompallier of the Roman Catholic Church wrote to Governor Hobson asking
for a grant of "a sufficient space of land for a church, dwelling house and for
Roman Catholic public" in the new capital. Hobson's reply was that land for a
chapel would be granted to him along Wyndham Street.5
Meetings to raise
subscriptions for building the first Catholic chapel there began in July of that
year. On 6 August, Bishop Pompallier presided over one such meeting and named
the intended church after St Patrick and St Joseph. The first building, a chapel
house for the priest, was completed by March 1842, and the first wooden chapel
itself was opened on 29 January 1843. 6
On application to the Government of a further grant of land for a school, the
parish received half an acre on the west side of Hobson Street, and a "Ladies
Seminary" was ready on that site by January 1845. 7
The wooden chapel
was only meant to be a temporary step, leading towards the construction on the
Wyndham Street site of a more permanent stone cathedral. The first part of this
plan began with the calling for tenders in early 1846, the foundation stone laid
on 1 March by Bishop Viard, and in April permission was granted to the church
trustees to quarry for stone from Mount Eden. The architect Walter Robertson
arrived in Auckland in 1847, accelerating work on the cathedral which was
finally consecrated on 19 March 1848, on the day of the feast of St Joseph.
8
The complex from 1848 until the further development in the 1880s has been
described as "...a massive building standing out above all the buildings around
it ... with the old wooden church and the schoolteacher's house on the north
side of the section, the buildings formed a U shape, with an open end facing
Hobson Street." 9 The 1843 wooden chapel was moved to accommodate the new
stone church, and continued to be in use until 1896, serving as a convent and
later a boy's school. 10 As at 1851, on the parish's quarter-acre section in
the middle of what was now known as Chapel Square, there was the stone church,
presbytery, boy's school, teacher's house, girl's school, orphanage and convent.
11
In the early 1880s it was decided to proceed with the cathedral development.
By now, the parish had the services of noted Auckland architect Edward Mahoney
to call upon, and over the next three decades he and his son Thomas were to
become well known for their architectural design of Catholic churches and
cathedrals not only in Auckland but across the top of the North Island.
12The
foundation stone was laid for the new cathedral in 1884, with the design
incorporating the 1848 stone chapel as the transept. 13 The cathedral was
opened and blessed on 15 March 1885. 14
Crown titles for
the cathedral section were issued in late November and early December 1850.
15 These were re-recorded in 1898 when the parish discovered that
the dedicated road (western side of Chapel Square) ran under the nave and
entrance to the new cathedral.
16 Section 33, the corner site facing Hobson Street, had been
purchased by Bishop Pompallier in 1855,
17 while Bishop Lenihan purchased Section 32 in 1900.
18Earlier, in 1898, two representatives, possibly parish trustees
(Patrick Dignan and Hugh Coolahan) transferred part of both these sections back
to public ownership so that the road could be altered. 19The road, however,
had already been changed on maps dating back at least to 1882.
20
The parish built the Presbytery on the Hobson Street corner with Wyndham
Street in 1888. 21
19th century
patterns of settlement
The Marist
Messenger in April 1938 published one description of what the area around the
Square was like back in the mid-19th century:
"Then, over the
fern and through the ti-tree of the slopes and gullies now covered with the
warehouses and the other centres of commercial life which adorn the city, came
the worshippers. On shaky stepping stones, they crossed the little muddy stream
that ran where Queen Street now re-echoes its busy traffic, and made up the
steep slope to the little church ..."
22
This would not
have been far from the truth in terms of the area's description at that time. By
1852, while a number of dwellings had started to appear up the slopes towards
Hobson Street ridge, the original stone chapel stood out clearly as a landmark.
23
Chapel Street by
the 1880s was a working class area, with residential land use pre-dominating.
Here workers such as seamen, midwives, retired coal merchants and "manglers"
lived.
24 Close to St Patrick's Cathedral was a boarding house run by
William Smith, and three hotels were in the vicinity. This visual pre-dominance
of the Cathedral over the surrounding area would continue until the early 20th
century.
5 E. R.
Simmons, In Cruce Salus, A History of the Diocese of Auckland
1848-1980, p. 31
6 ibid, pp.
31-32
7 ibid., p. 32
8 ibid, pp.
33-34
9 Salmond Reed
Architects, St Patrick's Cathedral – Conservation Plan, prepared for the
Parish of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, 1998, p. 4
10 Salmond Reed
Architects, p. 5
11 ibid
12 See Sheppard
Collection, School of Architecture Library, University of Auckland
13 St
Patrick's Square – Site Context report, Community Planning files, Auckland
City
14 NZ Herald,
16 March 1885
15 Deeds 142861 and 142862, LINZ records
16 Salmond Reed
Architects, p. 3
17 Deed 6197,
12 March 1855, LINZ Records
18 Deed 153440, LINZ records
19 Deed 142861
20 Hickson Map,
1882, Map 60A, Special Collections
21 Website for St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral,
http://www.stpatricks.org.nz/History/Presbytery.asp Sighted 25 June 2006
22 Marist Messenger, 1 April 1938, via Salmond Architects report, 1998, p. 3
23 Patrick J. Hogan, lithograph, 1852, Special Collections reference 502 and 625
24 Wises Directory, 1880-1881
