Built with earthquakes in mind – St. Michael and All the Angels Church c.1871

The Anglican church of St. Michael and All the Angels, at 84 Oxford Terrace, stands on the site of the first church the Canterbury Association’s settlers built in 1851.   Perhaps there are few buildings in Canterbury around which the early associations of many amongst us – the pioneers of settlement in Canterbury  – entwine…

Quakes Haunt Christchurch Since Settlement Began

The underlying geological issues hidden beneath Christchurch’s swampy plains meant that the city’s founders and their surveyors who chose this site for their planned city, knew nothing of the dangers. The tranquil flat expanses provided no clues to the benign faults which shook the province with more than just an alarming regularity. Between 1869 –…

Catholic Basilica – The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

For the first Catholics in Christchurch, the purchasing of land within the city boundaries was met with great difficulty. Their first hurdle was to secure land from the Anglican dominated hierarchy of the Provincial Government, who preferred to see the Catholics build their cathedral anywhere but in or near the city centre. The Court Clerk…

St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Kilmore and Manchester Street corner

The wooden church of St Luke the Evangelist, stood in Manchester Street, just north of the Avon, from 1858 until it was pulled down in 1908 to make way for a larger stone and brick structure, faced with stone from Halswell. The old church had fallen into decay, and since the Cathedral had been constructed,…

Edwardian and Elegant Working Class Sydenham c.1912

Marking Time in Sydenham In 1912, the impressive Sydenham Post Office stood as a sentinel on the busy corner of Colombo and Brougham Streets. It was a huge post office which served a large community of citizens living around this suburb and commercial street. The photograph appears to have been taken on a quiet summer…

Deutsche Kirche, corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets, 1880

It is the year 1880 and Wilhelmina Arnst and John Christian Aschen have just married in the Deutsche Kirche, on the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets. They stand outside on the street with their family, friends, Pastor Theodore Albert Meyer (third from the right) and his wife and daughter. The German church was built…