105-year-old parish to be demolished

INLSA

A thanksgiving mass for old St Augustines school at the soon-to-be demolished Emmanuel Cathedral in Durban. Picture: Jacques Naude

Durban - Parish centre, will soon be demolished to make way for the new Denis Hurley Centre.

St Augustine’s Primary School, which is now situated in Greyville, was based in the parish centre from 1906 to 1956 and Thursday’s mass was attended by a number of former pupils.

The singing was led by the St Augustine’s School choir.

Father Albert Danker and Father Joe Money, both former pupils, took part in the mass.

Afterwards, the former pupils and celebrants gathered in the soon-to-be-demolished building, to reminisce and enjoy a display of memorabilia as arranged by St Augustine’s School old boy Ben Pottier.

The 105-year-old parish centre is run-down and dilapidated and, after exploring the costs involved in restoring it, it was decided that erecting a new facility on the same site would prove more economical.

The centre will be built in honour of Archbishop Denis Hurley, who served as bishop and archbishop of Durban from 1947 to 1992, and whom many of the former pupils at the school remember fondly. - The Mercury