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On July 30, 1884, four nuns arrived in Hamilton to provide Christian education for the settlers' children. Sister Mary St Germaine, Sister Mary of the Seven Dolours, Sister Mary Angele and Sister Francis of Assisi from the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, initially lived in a four-bedroomed cottage at 68 Cook Street and taught their young charges in nearby Hibernian Hall. Just months after their arrival, owever, work began on a wooden school and boarding hostel in Clyde Street on a site bought by the sisters for 120 pounds.
The convent opened in November 1889 and was the first three-storeyed building in Hamilton, but by 1938, it was deemed unsafe and work began on a new building. In 1939, boarders moved in and two years later, the convent was officially opened by the Bishop of Auckland, James Michael Liston.
The Institute des Notre Dames des Missions is as grand in name as it is in stature and adorned with religious statues with plaques that commemorate the parents of former nuns.
Built of concrete and plaster and shielded from the road by a tall brick wall, it is typical of the Romanesque style of architecture with round-headed windows, tower follies and an imposing front door. In the early days, convent visitors knocked and waited for the door to be opened by a pulley. When they passed through that door, they entered a room with an iron grille where they were identified before being taken to one of three parlours where visits took place. Today the pulley and iron grille have gone but the main door still opens on to a grand foyer.
In the 1930s, the convent was home to about 30 sisters who taught at three schools: St Columba's in Frankton; St Mary's Primary School and Sacred Heart College in Hamilton East. Until 1980, they wore distinctive black dresses with scapulars edged with blue braid, and a black veil over a white headdress. Today's sisters wear modern dress and live in units near the chapel and the convent is used as a hostel for 99 Sacred Heart boarders. The exterior remains unaltered but there have been major changes inside. The sisters' library has been transformed into a computer room and their partitioned bedrooms are now decorated with the boarders' posters, fluffy toys and teenage icons.
One tradition endures, however: It is said that, after lights-out, a 'green nun' roams the building. Curiously, the 'green' spectre changed colour when the hostel's distinctive green linen was replaced by pink.
St Mary's Convent Chapel, next to the former convent, was built in 1925-26 and designed by Jack Chitty. It has some fine examples of stained glass.
Writer: Gordon Glen Watson
Photographer: Yahn Simons  | 
