The Lutheran Church of Australia is selling its extensive property portfolio in North Adelaide. This sale includesincludes the historic campus of the Australian Lutheran College (ALC), adjacent student accommodation and a church administration complex. the denominations GEneral Church Board made the decision at its November meeting.
“The land and buildings are no longer serving the church well and they are unlikely to meet its future needs,” Brett Hausler, Executive Officer of the Church, is quoted on the official Lutheran website “‘”While the North Adelaide site has been a blessing to the church over many years, it has been appropriate to review its purpose.”
This year ALC has changed from the full-time model with students living on campus, in the years when it was known as Luther seminary, to a “distributed” education mode.
The imposing Blusetone building with a clock tower on Jeffcott Street, called Hermann Hall by the Lutherans, has played a significant role in South Australian Christian history. It began life as the North Adelaide Grammar School but became an interdenominatiuonal missionarry training school called Angas College. After World War I the sypply of students dried up and the Lutherans bought it in 1922. Since then the Lutherans spread across most of the large block surrounded by Jeffcott, Ward, Archer and Walter Sreets.
The Lutheran website gives reasons for the sale: “ALC has served the church well from its North Adelaide campus for many decades. The campus is fondly remembered by students and teaching staff as a hub of Christian community and personal growth. However, the North Adelaide campus is now largely under-utilised with very limited use of some buildings. The cost of maintaining the site is approximately $400,000 per annum.”
Across Ward Street is Bishopscourt, the former residence of Adelaide’s Anglican Archbishops, which fetched more than $7 million when it was sold three years ago.
The Other Cheek hopes that the Lutheran church’s mini Vatican in North Adelaide passes to another Christian ministry, without fueling the thriving industry of the conversion of churches and other Christian Buildings to heritage houses.