St Mary's Memorial Peace Hall is located at 44 Vivian Street in New Plymouth, opposite St Mary's church. It was designed by local architects Messenger, Griffiths and Taylor and built by contractors J.T. Julian & Son for the Congregates of St Mary's, as a thanksgiving for the end of the Great War. The foundation or corner stone was laid by Mayor Frank Wilson on 1 June 1924 and the Peace Hall was officially opened by Bishop Alfred Walter Averill at 2pm on 7 November 1924. The ceremony was followed by an afternoon bazaar and a "Flannel Dance" that evening.

A few days before the opening, on the night of Sunday 2 November, a fire broke out at the back of the building. Luckily Miss Audrey Eberlet, who lived with her parents on Powderham Street, noticed the smoke and put the fire out using a bucket she found nearby, thereby saving the new hall from serious damage.

 

Inscription on granite plaque to the right of the entrance lobby:

This building is / erected / by the Parishioners of St Mary's / to the Glory of God / and to commemorate / the termination of the / Great War / 11th November 1918.

 

Related Information

Website

St Mary’s Peace Memorial Hall, New Plymouth

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St Mary's Church hall and Sunday School commemoration stone laid (Taranaki Daily News 2 June 1924).

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St Mary's Church: new hall opened (Taranaki Daily News 8 November 1924)

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