It began on the street
The Salvation Army made its first appearance in Lismore on the street in January 1891. Salvationists William Gray and George Guy, arrived from Kempsey, began to play their instruments and drew a crowd.
William Gray is recorded as saying: I played on the cornet that grand old song “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power” and at once a large and curious crowd assembled and followed us around the block to the hired hall. That “hired hall” was the Protestant Hall on the corner of Magellan and Carrington Streets, the birthplace of The Salvation Army in Lismore.
It soon became too small and, after the Lismore Corps (church) was officially opened in May 1891 and officers Captain Maggie Doland and Lieutenant Gayland appointed there, meetings were moved to the Federal Hall which was capable of holding 600 people.
