BINGARAThe original School of Arts building in Bingara was a wooden one erected in 1885 at what is now 4 Riddell Street. It served the community until 1907 when it was replaced by a new brick building in the main street. The original building was purchased by the trustees of the Bingara Roman Catholic Church on 16 June 1906 for a sum of £163 and became a part of the Bingara Convent School. It was used in this way for almost a hundred years and was still a part of the school when it closed at the end of 2003.
The new building, at what is now 33 Maitland Street, was designed by Tamworth architect Phillip Ranclaud and was built by Joseph Keenan at a cost of £850. Work began on the building on 30 April 1907 and the roof was added in December of the same year. There is no record of when the building was officially opened but it was probably early in 1908. It was constructed of red brick and consisted of a number of offices along with a reading room and library. It had an attractively designed verandah with an entrance door offset to the right and it continued in use, unchanged, until the early 1920s. Extensive modifications were made to the front of the building in 1921-1922 after it was decided to combine its School of Arts function with that of an RSL office. Most significantly, however, it was also decided to add a War Memorial Hall at the back of the original School of Arts building and to link the two through a common front entrance. The new hall, which was part of the 1922 building program, measured approximately 35 metres by 15 metres and at its eastern end was a stage, complete with a decorative pressed metal proscenium. The ceiling was of painted timber above exposed metal trusses. A number of doors along either wall served as emergency exits and there were a number of windows approximately 3 metres high and a metre wide with decorative concrete rendered arches and sills. A second extension to the building took place during the 1930s when a supper room and associated facilities were added to the back of the hall. The 1907 School of Arts building still exists and is now the headquarters of the Bingara Shire Council. In favourable light, the words "School of Arts" may be made out under the paintwork of the left front section of the façade although the raised letters were chiselled off at some time after the School of Arts ceased to operate as such. The original lettering read "School of Arts & Soldiers' Memorial Hall". Also clearly visible on the front facade is an embossed and attractively painted version of the "Rising Sun" badge of the Australian Armed forces, a legacy of the building's earlier days. Its StoryLittle is known of the operation of the Bingara School of Arts in its early years. As well as there being no direct accounts of its operation, incidental references to it were lost when the town's newspaper records for the period from 1908 to 1934 were destroyed in a fire in the 1930s. Presumably, the original School of Arts was a successful organisation if the need was felt to replace its original building with a larger one in 1907. The replacement building was a substantial and more central one which would have provided ample scope for the usual reading and recreational services of other comparable institutions throughout the area.
It is known that the activities of the School of Arts continued after the First World War, in conjunction with those of the RSL which, by then, were sharing the same building. For a time during the 1920s, the new Memorial Hall was used as a theatre for the screening of silent movies and its use as such pre dated the town's other two picture theatres. The front section of the combined School of Arts and RSL building was known to have housed a reading room and a billiard room. At some time during the 1930s, it appears that the RSL's use of the building increased to the extent that the School of Arts function was no longer viable nor necessary and it ceased to operate. All of the building's services were then taken over by the RSL. The RSL continued to use the former School of Arts building, and the Memorial Hall, until 1947 when an agreement was reached with the Bingara Shire Council to exchange premises. The School of Arts building was the right size and had the central location to serve as an office for the Shire while the Shire's former premises in Finch Street offered more scope for RSL Club expansion. The Club had been unable to obtain a liquor licence in its original position because of the closeness of the two nearby licensed hotels in the main street. Its Later UseThe arrangement reached in 1947 has worked well for both the Bingara Shire Council and the RSL. The original School of Arts building has served ever since as an attractive, centrally located Shire Council office and the former Council premises in Finch Street have been developed into a well- patronised and efficient licensed RSL Club. The original Memorial Hall, attached to the School of Arts building, was used into the early 1980s for concerts, travelling shows and other entertainments. As far as is known, its final use was as a gymnasium and the markings of an indoor basketball court may still be seen in places. Most of the hall space is now occupied by attractively appointed Council offices and facilities but the stage area has been kept intact as an interesting historical memento. Its Significance to the Community
While there is little information about the early years of its operation, the Bingara School of Arts was clearly an integral part of the life of the town from 1885 until about 1935. It probably reached its peak of effectiveness in the period from 1900 to 1920, during which time it was known to have provided library and reading room services as well as community meeting rooms and billiard facilities. It is interesting that both the original School of Arts building and its replacement have continued to serve the community, albeit in ways quite different from those originally intended for them.
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