Albany Cemetery and Presbyterian Church (539 Albany Highway)

In 1858, a Scotsman, Reverend David Bruce, bought several acres of land east of Lucas Creek on behalf of the Presbyterian Church. He hoped that he could build his tenth church in the Auckland region on this property. Unfortunately, the population could not support the venture, so the land sat idle. Finally, in 1864, Bruce established a small chapel. The building functioned as a church, school, and local meeting place. When the settlement’s first purpose-built schoolhouse opened in 1876, the chapel was rented out. It eventually burned down in 1879.

To the southeast of the village centre, beside the road to Northcote, the community established a cemetery on Michael Mahoney’s confiscated estate. The first burial there took place in 1879. The cost of a plot was 10 shillings and the cost of sexton to officiate was a further 10 shillings. The cemetery became the burial place of many of the pioneers of Albany, Greenhithe, and Dairy Flat. Soldiers from Albany who served in the Great War are commemorated in the inscriptions on family plots. Many of the grave monuments were carved from Kauri, and some of these still stand.

In 1888, the nondenominational Albany Church Property Trustees bought the acre of land beside the cemetery. Under the guidance of Captain Alex McArthur, the trust erected a small wooden church with a tall, peaked roof in spring 1903 at a cost of just over £100. Methodist services were held fortnightly, while Presbyterian and Anglican services ran monthly. A long-running disagreement between denominations eventually resulted in the Presbyterians acquiring the property.

On 24 April 1991, the old church was destroyed by a tornado. Services were held at the nearby Anglican Church while a new church was prepared for the Presbyterians. In 1994, a former ski lodge was brought in and converted into a new church building. It opened on 2 July 1995. Six years later, on 22 July 2001, the current church replaced the modified ski lodge.

Continue along Albany Highway.