St John's Church in

Willis Street Willis Street is a prominent street in the central business district of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Along with Courtenay Place, Manners Street and Lambton Quay, the lower reaches of Willis Street form part of the "Golden Mile ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand, is registered by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

as a Category 1 Historic Place. Designed by Thomas Turnbull, it opened on 11 December 1885 to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1884. It was registered as a historic place on 18 March 1982, with registration number 228. The church was built in

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside '' Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

, totara and

rimu ''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a species of tree in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a dioecious evergreen conifer, reaching heights of up to , and can have a stout trunk (botany), trunk up to in diameter. It is endemis ...

by James Wilson. When new in 1885 it could seat 540 people, plus 240 in the gallery. A bell was installed in the spire, and supposedly would be able to be heard at Petone beach if the wind was right. Alterations were made to the church in 1904, and in 1953 Malcolm Bennie designed a porch as a memorial commemorating the centennial of the church. The church celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2003. The church had earthquake-strengthening done in 2013.

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Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Wellington Region Presbyterian churches in New Zealand Churches in Wellington City Gothic Revival church buildings in New Zealand Wooden churches in New Zealand Listed churches in New Zealand 1880s churches in New Zealand Churches completed in 1885 {{Presbyterian-church-stub