Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Information and pictures wanted please!
On the hilltop site at 9 Arawa Road/157 Te Anau Road stood the catholic church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and a church school opened in September 1929 by Archbishop O'Shea. The school cost £5000 to build. There was also a two-storied, four bedroom presbytery on the site.In 1998 former Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys recalled his youth: "My primary school was here in Wellington at Hataitai and on the hill above us was the Mt Carmel Convent school, now demolished. We boys used to throw stones at each other, but the Catholics had the advantage of gravity, for which they could praise God, but perhaps more appropriately give thanks to the sisters who had had the foresight to build on the highest ground in the neighbourhood."
Merle Jackson was a lay teacher who taught the first and second year children from 1973 to 1980. The school's other two teachers at that time were Sisters of Mercy nuns. The hall was under the school and the children had lunch there every day. The whole school had school mass every Friday and on special feast days. In 1978 they began admitting four-year-olds because the roll was falling, but the school closed in 1980.
The church celebrated its last mass in July 1995. The property was sold in October 1995 because the three-storey school was no longer required by the church and the brick masonry was an earthquake risk. The buildings were demolished and a townhouse complex known as Carmel Mews was built on the site.
Thanks to Merle Jackson.
(C)2005 P. McKirdy. Updated Nov 2009
