Illus : The Façade of the Miller Hall.
The Grahamston Evangelistic Mission had started in the 1880s and met at Walton’s shop in Graham’s Road. It did well and in the 1890s John Miller, a postman, and his wife, were very active. Money was collected and in June 1912 the foundation stone of a mission hall was formally laid on the north side of Gowan Avenue. Mrs Harvey of Weedingshall was presented by J G Callander with an inscribed silver trowel for laying the stone. A time capsule was placed in a cavity in the wall containing a written account of the history of the mission, the names of the workers, coins of the realm and a copy of that day’s Falkirk Herald. The building cost around £800 and the large hall accommodated around 460 people. There was also a smaller hall, ladies’ and gentlemen’s retiring rooms, a vestry and a kitchen.
The building is set almost perpendicular to the street front. The simplified baroque façade had a flat parapet wall masking a flat roof over the entrance lobby. However, the hall behind the lobby was conventional. The flat roof on the lobby permitted a large Diocletianic window in the south gable of the hall. This last feature is now lost as the gable was advanced to sit on the façade. The entrance doorway was flanked by banded pilasters and had a low moulded arch – as did the windows to either side.
Contractors – Builders J & P McLachlan, Stenhousemuir; Joiners – Kelloch & Kilgour; Slater – David McNair; Plasterer, James Millar; Plumber, John Borland; Glaziers, Ure & Paterson.
Miller Hall SMR 2042 NS 8879 8081
Falkirk Local History Society 