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| | The Buildings of St Bathans
The Vulcan Hotel (c. 1869), typical of its period, still wears the shamrock that betrays its allegiance in the perennial feuds of the past between Catholic and Protestant Irish. Displays are mounted at times in the hall next door. Farther up the street is the two-storeyed combined post office and postmaster's residence, now opened occasionally by staff of the Otago Goldfields Park. A little beyond the post office is the simple iron Anglican Church of St Alban the Martyr (1882), a church whose predecessor was formally opened in 1865 only to be wrecked in a gale the next day. In London Mr F.G. Dalgety, owner of Hawkdun station, heard of the fate of the church and despatched a prefabricated iron replacement, 'felt and timber-lined . . . in fact complete in every respect . . . and I have also sent chairs, cocoanut (sic) matting, bibles, prayer books, maps etc.', he wrote to his manager. It was not until 1989 that the church was consecrated, an oversight perhaps occasioned by the fact that the church stood on private property for many years until Dalgety & Co. finally transferred the land to diocesan trustees. Its predecessor was rebuilt at Oturehua where it still houses machinery.
Diagonally opposite the hotel, all alone, stands the former billiards saloon. Down the street the stone schoolhouse is collapsing into ruin, the old baker's oven nearby. Beside it stands immaculate St Patrick's Catholic Church (1892), built of sun-dried mud bricks, a building material common enough in the region but rare in a church.
The gold office (1893), a small classical building, has been returned from Oturehua and stands near its original site. In common with other gold towns, this was built by a bank where the gold could be assayed, its value determined, and be stored safely before it was transported to Oamaru or Dunedin. |
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