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2.2.5 ST GEORGE’S CHURCH2.2.5.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The St George's Anglican Church along Farquhar Street is one of the loveliest heritagesAnglican Church in George Town, Penang. The formation of the St George's Church wascredited to Reverend Robert Sparke Hutchings, the same person who founded the Penang FreeSchool, the oldest English school in Southeast Asia, and who gave his name to HutchingsSchool nearby.St. George's Church is the oldest Anglican Church in Southeast Asia and is located inGeorge Town, Penang, Malaysia. The St George's Church was built in 1816 using convictlabours, when Colonel J.A. Bannerman was the Governor of Penang. The cost of building it was60,000 Spanish dollars. This was a princely sum, considering the British paid only 10,000Spanish dollars per annum to Kedah for Penang, while they bought Singapore a few years later for also 60,000 Spanish dollars. It was completed in 1818 on the initiative of the PenangColonial Chaplain, Rev. Robert Sparke Hutchings (who also went on to found the Penang FreeSchool) and consecrated on 11 May 1819 by the Bishop of Calcutta, Thomas FanshaweMiddleton.On 6 July 2007, the church was declared one of the 50 National Treasures of Malaysiaby the Malaysian government. The services of the church still carried out until now.
 
Figure 2.37: The overall view of St. George's Church.
Source: Field study (2008)
2.2.5.2
 
ARCHITECTURE STYLES AND ELEMENTS
The church was designed by Captain Robert N. Smith of Madras Engineers. (Smith isalso a gifted artist whose oil paintings of Penang landscape still grace the walls of the PenangState Museum nearby.) The church was designed in the Georgian Palladian styles which arethe combination of the Georgian style and the Palladian style, named after the Grecianarchitecture of a Roman called Palladius.The most striking feature of the church's architecture is without a doubt the huge Greciancolumns lined outside the front entrance (Refer to figure 2.38). They immediately remind one of classical Greek structures such as The Parthenon, The Propylaia, the Temple to Athene andThe Erechtheion. The pavilion which sits in the lawn also lends a Grecian air to the ambience.The brick structure has a solid plastered stone base. The aforementioned pavilion was actuallyerected in 1886 to commemorate Sir Francis Light. Underneath the dome is found a marbleplaque framed by two columns, dedicated to Light.
 
The church was painted in white colour and there is plenty of cornice decoration at thefaçade of the building to constitute the impressive of the design (Refer to figure 2.39).When theoccupants realized that the original Madras-style flat roof was unsuitable for the climate inPenang; a gable shaped roof was built in its place, in 1864. The octagonal-shaped steeple,visible from afar, forms the apex of the roof (Refer figure 2.40). The mahogany trees in the lawn,which came from India as seedlings, were planted by A.B.Mackean in 1885. The ones stillremaining today are survivors from the destruction wreaked by WWII.The war took its toll on the church. Although the structure escaped relatively unscathed,the interior was another story. Looters carted off plaques, memorials and furnishings. A total of 24 memorials life-size marble figures were ruined during the heavy looting. Pews, the pulpit, thelectern and the organ had all to be replaced. Work to restore St George church back to itsformer self started soon afterwards and was completed in 1948. Sunday services wereimmediately resumed.Figure 2.38: The huge Grecian columns lined outside the front entrance
Sources: Field study (2008)
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