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Story: Communes and communities

Convent of the Sacred Heart chapel plan

This is John Swan's 1929 plan for a new chapel at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Island Bay, Wellington. The three-storey, French Gothic-style chapel opened in 1930. The Society of the Sacred Heart was founded in Paris, France, in 1800 to educate girls and young women. The Wellington convent was established in 1905, and a girls' secondary school opened in 1906. Later renamed Erskine College after Mother Erskine Stuart, a superior general of the order, it closed in 1985. When the school buildings were demolished and replaced by a housing development in the 2010s, the Category I chapel was saved and earthquake-strengthened.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Plans-89-0188

by John Sidney Swan

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Caren Wilton, Communes and communities – Religious and spiritual communities, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/28129/convent-of-the-sacred-heart-chapel-plan (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Caren Wilton, published 31 March 2011.