Hindmarsh Square Congregational Church

The Hindmarsh Square Congregational Church was one of the larger Protestant churches in the early days of Adelaide, South Australia, located in Hindmarsh Square.

The Congregational (or "Independent") Church in Adelaide had its beginnings in 1837 in a marquee erected by T. Q. Stow, then progressed to a pug and pine chapel on North Terrace, succeeded in November 1840 by a more substantial building on Freeman Street (later part of Gawler Place). In June 1851 a breakaway group led by William Peacock and I. J. Barclay founded their "Ebenezer Chapel" on land donated by Peacock off Rundle Street, near the old East Terrace Market. Revs. M. H. Hodge, of Port Adelaide, and George Stonehouse, of the Lefevre Terrace Baptist Church, North Adelaide took the first services before Rev. Joseph Haynes was appointed their pastor. Then came the rush to the Victorian goldfields, of which Haynes was a participant and the Ebenezer Chapel closed for fifteen months. In July 1853 Rev. John Hotham, recently arrived from England, reorganized the church. Two years later, Hotham took charge of the Port Elliot chapel, and his place was taken by Rev. Edward Dewhirst. A year later Dewhirst left to join the Baptist Church, and the British and Foreign Bible Society appointed Rev. F. W. Cox to take charge of the church. In the meantime Stow supervised both branches of the Congregational Church in Adelaide. Cox arrived in South Australia in 1857 and preached his first sermon at the Ebenezer Place (named for the chapel and not vice-versa) chapel. Soon the little church ("obscurely situated in a dirty lane off Rundle street" — Rev. W. Harcus) was full to overflowing, and it was clear a larger chapel was called for.

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