The Rice Memorial Church stands on a busy street in the midst of temple, dargahs, book shops and heavy traffic, with its colonial British structure appearing to be out of place in the traditional Bangalore market district.

The church stands on the site of the London Mission Canarese Chapel built by Rev.

[1][2][3][4][5] The church is a stone building in the European Classical style, with Tuscan columns, pediments and keystone arch windows.

There has been proposals for widening of Avenue Road, which would result in damage or loss of the Rice Memorial Church and other monuments.

The corridor proposed by Bangalore's well known architect Naresh Narasimhan, with consultations from Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has however has not been accepted by the Government of Karnataka.

Benjamin attended school till the age of 13 and showed great interest in the study of scriptures, religion and poetry.

Rice along with his wife arrived at Madras on 29 December 1836 along with a batch of London Mission missionaries.

After the death of Jane, Benjamin married Catherine Muller, a widow of the German missionary Rev.

Catherine died in 1887, after which Harriet Muller took official charge of the boarding house, serving till 1911 when she retired.

To impart English education, in 1847, Rice established the Anglo-Vernacular School at Sultanpet, Bangalore, with 100 students.

During his lifetime, Rice wrote many treatises on Hinduism, Christianity, Indian literature and about India, both in English and Canarese.

[citation needed] Benjamin Holt Rice is often confused with his son, Benjamin Lewis Rice, a scholar of Canarese, Tamil and Grantha, who compiled the 12 volume Epigraphia Carnatica, recording the ancient inscriptions in the Kingdom of Mysore, and the Mysore Gazette.

The Agram cemetery also has the graves of Mary Ann Hodson wife of Thomas Hodson of the Wesleyan Missionary Society who died on 10 August 1866 aged 68, Catherine wife of Matthew Trevan Male of the Wesleyan Missionary Society who died on 29 August 1865 aged 49, Fanny Lees child of Catherine and Matthew Male born 29 January 1861 and died 24 April 1861, and Rev.

[21] In 1834, William Campbell of the London Mission raised a chapel on Infantry Road (between St. Andrew's Church and St. Paul's, currently Gem Plaza) in the Bangalore Civil and Military Station, incurring a cost of BINR 8000 raised by public subscription, where services were held in Tamil, English and Canarese.

An inquiry exposed the full scale of the problem, with native converts still adhering to caste hierarchies which was unacceptable to the Mission.

In the same year, a regular services re-commenced in the Petah Chapel starting on the occasion of Lord's Day.

In 1912, the building plan for the new church was ready, but funding was delayed by the directors of the London Missionary Society.

The completed Rice Memorial Church was formally opened by Mrs. Blake, the daughter of Rev.

Others in attendance included The offertory collected during the inaugural services amounted to 432 Rupees, 5 Annas and 11 Pice[26][29] In January 2017, The Rice Memorial Church, Bangalore, celebrated its centenary year.

The proposed corridor started at the City Institute on Krishna Rajendra Road (KR Road), cutting through Makkala Koota, Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace, Victoria Hospital, Bangalore Fort, entering Avenue Road crossing Rice Memorial, hitting Mysore Bank Circle, continuing on to Palace Road going past Maharani's College, SJI Polytechnic, Central College, Carlton House, KPSC building, stretching till the reservoir, Raj Bhavan, Balabrooie, and Manikyavelu Mansion and ending at Bangalore Palace.