Following its establishment in 1854, the 1855 rate books record H Hyslop occupying an iron store on the site. First mention of the Hall is made in 1865 rate books when the Wesleyan Church occupied the site. The Hall has a rendered masonry façade and the iron structure behind was manufactured by Edwin Maw of Liverpool. Iron Doric pilasters divide the side elevations into panels lined externally with corrugated iron sheet. (This paragraph is sourced from The Fitzroy Historical Society’s ‘Fitzroy’s Founding Footsteps’).
This information above is slightly different to the information below sourced from the All Saints Parish Church website:
“The Parish Hall was originally a prefabricated iron store made by Edwin Maw of Liverpool erected in 1854. The present stone façade was added in 1872 when it became the Rechabite Hall. In 1881 it was acquired by the Wesleyan Church. It is believed to be the only prefabricated iron building brought to Melbourne at the height of the Gold Rushes which still stands on its original site. ” (All Saints Website, 2021). This is correct as far as Fitzroy goes as the other two iron buildings in Fitzroy have been removed and re-erected in South Melbourne from 40 Moor Street and Thomas Kidney’s iron house / shop in Napier Street which was demolished in the 60s/70s (South Fitzroy Conservation Study 1979, p.11)
“The Hall is primarily used by the parishioners of All Saints Church, Fitzroy and Sacred Heart School, Fitzroy. However, in July 2008, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, made provision for the Parish Hall to be renovated and refurbished in order to expand its use for the recently arrived Catholic Sudanese people to Melbourne. As a result of this, All Saints Parish Hall now houses the Community Centre for the Australian South Sudanese Community Elders’ Council Inc. It was blessed on 26th July 2008 by His Eminence Gabriel Cardinal Zubeir Wako, Archbishop of Khartoum and opened by The Hon. Lindsay Tanner, Federal Member for Melbourne and Minister of Finance and Deregulation. Under the auspices of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, the intention is “…that all who visit this place may learn here to hope for the coming of God’s Kingdom.” (South Fitzroy Conservation Study 1979, p.11)