about st thomas'

church history

A church building called St Thomas' has existed on this site since 1846. The first building was a small one – with rough white-washed stone walls and clear glass windows.

People came from Milson's Point, Greenwich, Neutral Bay and the St Leonards area, walking through the bush via dusty dirt tracks to attend Sunday services in that first church building, built amid the gum trees on top of a hill in the settlement, then named St Leonards.

In the later years of the first minister's time at St Thomas', the Anglican architect Edmund Blacket was recommended to design a larger church. The contractors began work on the new building in 1881, during the ministry of the fourth minister, and the building opened in 1884. During contruction of this new church, the original St Thomas' building remained for regular worship while the new church – the one here today – was built around it as funds became available.

St Thomas' has stood as a prominent beacon of Christianity in the once quiet, but now bustling, North Sydney. For more than 160 years people have been meeting here to hear God's message and learn of Jesus Christ – Saviour and Lord.

Follow the links below for information about:
> St Thomas' church archives (section under development)
> Burials at St Thomas' Cemetery (1847–1950)