History – Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish Pagewood

SOME HISTORICAL NOTES OF OUR LADY OF THE ANNUNCIATION PARISH

1956: Four acres of land bought for £9000 at Pagewood by Maroubra Junction Parish. Process started by Fr Conagham and completed by Fr B. Hudson
1957: 17th July, Contract signed by Fr Hudson with G.C. McCabe builders to build a Church-Hall at Donovan Ave. Pagewood. 24th July, Cardinal Norman Gilroy approves suggested naming of new church under the patronage of Our Lady of the Annunciation
1958: 23rd March, New church-hall blessed and opened by Cardinal Gilroy as a mass-centre of Maroubra parish. 29th August, Canonical permission granted for the Stations of the Cross to be erected on the walls of the Church.
1959: 3rd December, Pagewood parish boundaries declared by Cardinal Gilroy. 19th December, Fr John Power is appointed as “Priest in charge” of new parochial district of Pagewood.
1960: 4th December, Parish presbytery blessed and opened by Cardinal Gilroy on corner of Parer Street and Donovan Avenue.
1961: 29th January, Saint Gabriel’s Boys School (now Fr John Power wing) with temporary residence for Marist Brothers blessed and opened by Cardinal Gilroy
1962: 21st January, Infants School (now K and Library) blessed and opened by Cardinal Gilroy. Staffed by two sisters of The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
1963: 12th May, New Marist Brothers Accommodation Block blessed and opened by Cardinal Gilroy. Place for ten brothers.
Ensuing years: Progressive expansion and development of Marist College and OLA Primary School. Ongoing Sacramental life of the Parish with close links to the schools.
1988: Blessing of new sandstone Sanctuary area and stained glass window in the Church.
2002: Redemptoris Mater Sydney Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary occupies the disused Brothers Residence.

THE BEGINNING

Father Hutson, priest from Maroubra, completed the arrangement begun by Monsignor Conaghan for the purchase of the Pagewood land in 1956. The erection of a school however, had to be postponed because no teaching congregation was in a position to provide a community of nuns or brothers. Because of the rapid increase in population, however, Father Huston decided to proceed with the building of a church which could also be adapted for use as parish hall. Eventually, he hopes the four-acre block of land will accommodate a boys' school and Brothers' monastery. Estimated to cost, when furnished, about £19,000, the Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation is constructed of red texture brick and has a 45 feet brick tower which will be a minor landmark in the district. It has an over all length of 90 feet and will seat 400. The flooring of the new building is of tallow wood, and a flight of terrazzo steps leads past a stonework feature at the main entrance to a seven-foot-wide tiled porch. An office and toilets for men and women lead off the porch. The interior is finished in rendering and painted in pastel shades. On either side of the sanctuary, which is backed by a moulded timber reredos with a built-in canopy, there is a priest's sacristy with a separate entrance-porch and a working sacristy. White ceilings are set off by black beams of steel encased in plaster and lighting is by fluorescent tubes set flush in the apex of the ceiling. Incandescent fittings have been set around the walls. The glazed porch, accessible from the main entrance passageway, will serve as a shelter area for those using the recreation space on the site. A hand carved crucifix is a feature of the sanctuary and hangs above the altar. A stainless steel cross surmounts the brick tower of the new building.