Swan Hill Memorial Hall
47 McCrae Street SWAN HILL, SWAN HILL RURAL CITY
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Statement of Significance
The former Soldiers' Memorial Hall at 47 McCrae Street, Swan Hill, is of local historic, social and aesthetic significance. Erected as a war memorial, clubroom and mechanics' institute in 1922, the hall was a focus for social and community activity in Swan Hill for many years. Aesthetically, it is a particularly fine example of an inter-War public hall, distinguished by its bold brickwork and streamlined composition, which contrasts markedly with other public halls in the municipality, which are invariably of timber of ripple iron construction, with few architectural pretensions. The memorial hall is a prominent element in the historic inter-War streetscape, which also includes the fire station and front wing of McKillop College.
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Swan Hill Memorial Hall - Physical Description 1
The former Memorial Hall is a single-storey face brick building on a T-shaped plan, comprising a wide front wing, built to the property line, with the elongated hall behind. The front wing, of clinker brick, has a hipped roof clad in corrugated galvanised steel, concealed by a low parapet with a central tower-like element. The symmetrical street facade has a central recessed porch flanked by three timber-framed double-hung sash windows with rendered sills and projecting brick spandrels below. A rendered stringcourse runs across the facade, with matching banding at plinth level and to the porch surround. The porch has the words memorial hall across the lintel with a moulded entablature above, surmounted by a wreath motif.
The rear portion of the building built of plain red brick, and has a gabled roof clad in corrugated galvanised steel. There are rows of tall rectangular windows with rendered lintels and splayed sills, and boarding that conceals the sashes. A small hip-roofed projecting wing forms a delivery bay, with a large ledged-and-braced timber door.
Swan Hill Memorial Hall - Intactness
Good
Swan Hill Memorial Hall - Physical Conditions
Good
Swan Hill Memorial Hall - Historical Australian Themes
Thematic Environmental History
13.5 Halls
13.6 The Wars
13.7 LeisureVeterans Description for Public
Swan Hill Memorial Hall - Veterans Description for Public
The former Soldiers' Memorial Hall, at 47 McCrae Street, Swan Hill was unveiled by the the Governor General, Lord Forster with his wife on March 28th 1922. In early 1922, a joint committee was formed by the Swan Hill branch of the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA, now RSL) and members of the local mechanics' institute, with a view to erecting a hall which could be used by both parties.The vacant site on the east side of McCrae Street, next to the fire station, was acquired for £100, and a resolution was made to have plans prepared for the committee's approval. The architects were Bradbury & Greenwood of Queen Street, Melbourne, about whom very little is known. The day after the foundation stone for the hall was laid, the Swan Hill Guardian reported:
"It is very fitting that His Excellency should lay the stone of the hall in memory of the district boys who lost their lives in the Great War. In his short address, His Excellency said he hoped the hall would prove a good club for those who had survived the war [and] he hoped that the hall and all who use it would prosper in the future, and those who passed by would see and recognise what it stood for."
The former Memorial Hall is a single-storey face brick building on a T-shaped plan, comprising a wide front wing, built to the property line, with the elongated hall behind. The porch has the words memorial hall across the lintel with a moulded entablature above, surmounted by a wreath motif.
In 1976, the building was acquired by the Swan Hill Theatre Group, a local amateur theatrical company that founded was in the 1940s by Marjorie McLeod B.E.M. It continues to be used as a community theatre.
Heritage Study and Grading
Swan Hill Rural - Rural City Of Swan Hill Heritage Study Stage 2
Author: Allom Lovell and Associates
Year: 2001
Grading: B
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SWAN HILL BRIDGEVictorian Heritage Register H0794
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SWAN HILL PIONEER SETTLEMENTVictorian Heritage Register H2409
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Swan Hill & District HospitalNational Trust
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