In 1996 the Christian Science Church in Port Elizabeth was illegally demolished. City Councillor Rory Riorden was furious and penned an article for Restorica which we have republished below. Restorica was the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.
The demolisher of the [Christian Science Church] in Port Elizabeth will face charges under the National Monuments Act in May this year, for failing to obtain a demolition permit.
Demolition of the building designed by the late Herbert MacWilliams took place while a NMC meeting was in progress to declare it a national monument. The developer was well aware of the architectural importance of the building - it was the only church building in the country designed in the so-called Californian style - but ignored requests to preserve the facade in any new development.
Demolition in progress (Carlie Norval)
The destruction of the facade of the [Christian Science Church] in Park Drive, Port Elizabeth, was an act of utter barbarism. One can explain it away in a hundred ways: The church had gone unsold for years, and nobody could make a development work while maintaining the complex and difficulty sited facade; the land was now worth much...
