GUNNEDAHThe site for a School of Arts in Gunnedah was dedicated on 5 November 1878 and the foundation stone was laid on 11 September 1879 by Mr T. K. Abbott, the Gunnedah Police Magistrate at the time. The building, which was located in Elgin Street on the site currently occupied by Gunnedah Shire Council, was completed early in 1880 at a cost of £1000. The original building was of brick and consisted of a hall with two rooms at the front, one for a reading room and the other for a library. It was soon found to be too small and early in 1893, the Government gave permission for it to be extended. The Depression of the 1890s intervened at this time, however, and money could not be found for the necessary extensions. In 1899, the original flooring was replaced and modifications were made to the two rooms at the front. The hall was also extended by approximately 10 metres and internal iron rods were added to improve the structural strength of the building. It was not until 1907 that the major extensions envisaged some fifteen years earlier were carried out. The building was aligned with the footpath in Elgin Street and a two-storeyed front was added. The upstairs section of the new front became the reading room and the bottom section became the library. A billiard room with two tables was added on the side and cloakrooms were built near the front entrance. The extensions cost a total of £800 with another £150 being spent on the two billiard tables. The billiard rooms were extended a few years later to accommodate a third table but the next major extension did not occur until 1918 when a supper room and kitchen were added. The final changes to the building occurred during the early 1930s when "a new and commodious stage was erected, the old stage being removed to give further hall space." The building remained in use as a School of Arts until the late 1940s and was then used for a number of different purposes until its eventual demolition in 1964. Its StoryInterest in establishing a School of Arts in Gunnedah emerged during the mid 1870s when the population of the town was about 500. A group of public spirited men banded together to begin raising money and engendering public support for the project. One of their moves was to establish a group of entertainers called the "Christy Minstrels" which went on to raise considerable amounts for the building fund. The founding group included J. J. Smyth, T. B. Roberts, Robert Brock, John Kirkpatrick, Robert Doolan, William L. Douglas, Daire Evans and T. K. Abbott. All of these men served as members of the Gunnedah Municipal Council and three of them subsequently went on to serve as Mayors. The laying of the foundation stone on 11 September 1979 was described as "a red letter day" in Gunnedah. It coincided with the official opening of the railway extension to the town and both events were celebrated that evening at a banquet and ball held in the new railway goods shed. Mr Russell McDonagh, in November 1952, described the early activities of the School of Arts: "When the building of the School of Arts was completed it became quite a social centre and was well patronised by members. It was not let for hiring purposes until some years later. Functions of social, educational and cultural nature were regularly held in the form of debates, lectures, art and flower shows, games, musical evenings etc." It appears that interest in the School of Arts lapsed a little as the 1880s progressed because McDonagh goes on to say "Towards the 1890s, the hall was let for hiring purposes but by then it was looked upon merely as a place for dancing with a library attached." Interest in what the School of Arts had to offer, however, had obviously returned by the early years of the twentieth century, as evidenced by the extensive building extensions and modifications of 1907. From then, right through until the early 1930s, it served as a focal point for community entertainment and was a popular venue for large, well-attended balls and dances. It also hosted some of the top stage artists of the day, Australian and international, including the celebrated singer, Peter Dawson. During the State election of 1932, the former, recently dismissed Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, addressed a packed hall from the stage of the School of Arts after a dramatic street march which he had led from the Gunnedah Railway Station. Another celebrated occasion saw a billiard match between local champion Peter Le Cussan and the famous Horace Lindrum. The local man could not prevail against the champion until the game switched from billiards to snooker, whereupon he convincingly defeated Lindrum in two successive games. It was said around town that the place where the big decisions were made was around the billiard table at the School of Arts. It was there that the town's "establishment" met to talk things over and to relax. The School of Arts fell upon difficult times in the Depression years of the 1930s and during the Second World War. The President of the School of Arts Committee for some of this time, Bill Baker, would often man the doors at dances to make sure that all possible door takings could be secured. Youths trying to get in without paying claimed that "he would not even let a breeze get past him!" By this time, the Town Hall had become the main venue for big social functions and the School of Arts struggled on for another twenty years or so as licensed clubs, extended hotel trading hours and television all made further inroads into its popularity as a community meeting place. Its Later UseA final lease of life for the building came in the years immediately after the Second World War when it was used as a Technical College. The main hall area was used for dressmaking classes, the stage for typing and shorthand tuition and the supper room was adapted as a machine shop for the teaching of welding, engineering and farm mechanics. When the Technical College moved to a new building of its own in 1951, the School of Arts building was turned over to commercial use, providing the venue first for a second-hand furniture store run by Gordon Barry, and later, for a second-hand car business run by John Sommerville- Smith.
After protracted legal negotiations, the School of Arts was finally taken over by the Gunnedah Municipal Council in 1956. It served for a time as a Regional Library until its demolition in 1964 to make way for new Council buildings. Its Significance to the CommunityThe Gunnedah School of Arts was typical of many which served the region. It began with a flourish in the 1880s, serving the community as a venue for social gatherings and as a place where newspapers and magazines could be read and books could be borrowed. It languished for a time during the 1890s only to experience a new lease of life during the early years of the Twentieth Century. For a time, it was by far the most significant social gathering place in the town and the venue for concerts, performances and public meetings. Its hey day coincided with a national interest in billiards as a pastime and its three billiard tables were in high demand. As other facilities in the town were developed and as social patterns changed, the School of Arts began to go into decline. It had virtually ceased to serve a major need in the town by the years of the Second World War although it lingered for a time afterwards. Its final years saw it stripped of all of its previous significance with its building being used, first as the temporary home for a Technical College and then as the temporary home for various businesses. The building had ceased to have any real value quite some time before it was demolished in 1964. No trace of it now remains.
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