Pollen Street Lecture Hall.

Thames Star, Issue 4939, 7 November 1884, Page 2

Pollen Street Lecture Hall.

This serviceable addition to our list o£ public buildings,'situated at the corner of Richmond street, is now rapidly approach* ing completion, and will be formally opened ou Sunday next, as notified elsewhere, while a soiree in celebration of the event will be held on Monday evening. Both meetings are expected to be most successful, as considerable local interest is being taken in the opening, and a number of speakers and friends from Auckland will be present. The building was formerly the old Munster Hotel, and still more recently a boarding-house, and has been converted into a hall by the Thames branch of the New Zealand Evangelistic Association (which has foand the Oddfellows' Hall too small for its meetings), under the direction of Mr E. H. Taylor. After pulling down the top storey of the old building, the structure was raised 18in., and the stnds lengthened to 15ft. The dimensions of the hall, 56ft.; breadth, 33ft.; height to ceiling, 21ft. 9in., and it will be comfortably seated for over 300 people, though capable of holding at least 403. There ape also two commodious vestries at the back, and a baptistry will be fitted under the platform. The Tenti* lation, light, and acoustic properties are good. The ceiling and wainseotting are varnished, the rest of the building being papered. The interior will be finished to morrow, ,but it will be a week or two before the finishing touches are put to the outside. The work was commenced two months ago, and the greater portion, of it has been done by some eight or tea of the Church members, who have given their time, and for three weeks past the various operations have been carried on briskly nearly every evening. The cost has thereby been materially reduced. The spirit of self-help thus exhibited is almost a novelty in church annals on the Thames, and it certainly is much more deserving of praise than the usual method of letting the work by tender and making exertions to raise the money.