Foundation stone hops to Scotch
It is small in size but big in historical significance.
And some 124 years after it was first laid, the foundation stone for what led to Scotch College has gone full circle.
The stone was laid in Shearer Memorial Hall, which was built in Beaufort Street in 1892. It was named after the Rev. David Shearer, who arrived in WA in 1879 and built the first Presbyterian Church in Perth.
He died in 1891 and Alexander Scotch College, the forerunner of Scotch College, was established at the memorial hall in 1897 before the school moved to its Swanbourne site in 1905.
When the memorial hall was demolished, the foundation stone was taken to St Andrew’s Church on St George’s Terrace.
St Andrew’s was closed in 2009 and the site sold to a Singaporean-based hotel group.
PLC archivist Shannon Lovelady salvaged items from the church including elders’ chairs, pews, a baptismal font, memorial plaques for the Rev. George Tulloch (a St Andrew’s and PLC minister) and his wife Grace, as well as the Shearer Memorial Hall foundation stone.
Some items are in the PLC chapel and the stone will be displayed at Scotch College.
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