Adelaide - The South Australian Institute
In 1858 Colonial Architect Edward Angus Hamilton was instructed to design an Institute Building. The new building, in Victorian Renaissance style, was completed in July 1860. The official opening by Acting Governor Sir Charles Cooper, the chief justice, took place on 29 January 1861.
The Institute Building quickly became a focal point of Adelaide’s cultural life: 40 societies were affiliated with the South Australian Institute by 1867.
The South Australian Institute, was to comprise a Public Library and Museum, and, by means of public lectures, classes, and otherwise, to promote the general study and cultivation of all or any of the various branches or departments of art, science, literature and philosophy and to encourage and assist kindred societies. The library was required to provide free public access to a reading room on every day of the week except Sunday.
Books could be borrowed on the payment of a membership fee of 2s 6d and annual subscription of between £1 and £2.
The Adelaide Philosophical Society and School of Design were also housed in the building. The Institute was the only body in Adelaide providing public technical and further education. Although there were some private secondary colleges, the colony’s education system at that time did not go beyond primary school.
Standing alone on North Terrace, the Institute Building generated interest and admiration. Its central entrance hallway featured a grand staircase. The ground floor housed the circulating library, a large reading room with a raised platform at one end for lectures, a coffee room, an office for the Institute’s secretary and a boardroom. A central passageway led to the housekeeper’s apartment at the rear. On the first floor were three large rooms intended for classes and meetings of societies. Behind them a 21.3m long room designed by Hamilton for the art gallery and museum was lit by skylights fitted with rope-drawn blinds. Heating in winter came from fires in fireplaces decorated by carved timber surrounds.
In spite of the construction of other cultural buildings on North Terrace, the Institute Building was well used and cramped for space. Plans went ahead for extensive additions on the north side, including a separate two-storey caretaker’s residence facing Kintore Avenue. The extension was opened on 12 June 1907 by Governor Sir George Le Hunte.
The expanded Institute Building housed the remnant South Australian Institute, the Circulating Library, the Royal Society of South Australia, the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch) and the South Australian Society of Arts.
The museum collections and part of the library were moved from the Institute Building to the new Jervois Wing in 1882–1883, in anticipation of creating independent and growing cultural institutions. (The Jervois wing is now known as the Mortlock Wing of the State Library of South Australia.) The Art Gallery moved first to the Jervois Wing, then to the Exhibition Building, before occupying a building of its own. The School of Design moved to the Exhibition Building in 1890–1891, although it continued to be run by the Institute until taken over by the Education Department in 1909.
Since 1907 internal alterations and upgrades have been made to the building. The most significant of these was the conversion of the Royal Geographical Society’s rooms into a lecture theatre in 1965 after the society moved to the Jervois Wing. While the State Library controls and uses the building, various organisations have worked from it, including the Institutes Association of South Australia (1912–80), the Women’s Information Switchboard (1978–97), the Women’s Studies Resource Centre (1979–84), the History Trust of South Australia (1981–97) and the Friends of the State Library of South Australia (2007–). The Bradman Collection was exhibited in the building (1998–2008), before moving to its own museum at the Adelaide Oval.
The Institute Building continues to house and provide an important public exhibition venue for the South Australian Society of Arts. Its meeting rooms and the Anne and Basil Hetzel Lecture Theatre are widely used.
Ref: Adelaidea website
Adelaide - The South Australian Institute
In 1858 Colonial Architect Edward Angus Hamilton was instructed to design an Institute Building. The new building, in Victorian Renaissance style, was completed in July 1860. The official opening by Acting Governor Sir Charles Cooper, the chief justice, took place on 29 January 1861.
The Institute Building quickly became a focal point of Adelaide’s cultural life: 40 societies were affiliated with the South Australian Institute by 1867.
The South Australian Institute, was to comprise a Public Library and Museum, and, by means of public lectures, classes, and otherwise, to promote the general study and cultivation of all or any of the various branches or departments of art, science, literature and philosophy and to encourage and assist kindred societies. The library was required to provide free public access to a reading room on every day of the week except Sunday.
Books could be borrowed on the payment of a membership fee of 2s 6d and annual subscription of between £1 and £2.
The Adelaide Philosophical Society and School of Design were also housed in the building. The Institute was the only body in Adelaide providing public technical and further education. Although there were some private secondary colleges, the colony’s education system at that time did not go beyond primary school.
Standing alone on North Terrace, the Institute Building generated interest and admiration. Its central entrance hallway featured a grand staircase. The ground floor housed the circulating library, a large reading room with a raised platform at one end for lectures, a coffee room, an office for the Institute’s secretary and a boardroom. A central passageway led to the housekeeper’s apartment at the rear. On the first floor were three large rooms intended for classes and meetings of societies. Behind them a 21.3m long room designed by Hamilton for the art gallery and museum was lit by skylights fitted with rope-drawn blinds. Heating in winter came from fires in fireplaces decorated by carved timber surrounds.
In spite of the construction of other cultural buildings on North Terrace, the Institute Building was well used and cramped for space. Plans went ahead for extensive additions on the north side, including a separate two-storey caretaker’s residence facing Kintore Avenue. The extension was opened on 12 June 1907 by Governor Sir George Le Hunte.
The expanded Institute Building housed the remnant South Australian Institute, the Circulating Library, the Royal Society of South Australia, the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch) and the South Australian Society of Arts.
The museum collections and part of the library were moved from the Institute Building to the new Jervois Wing in 1882–1883, in anticipation of creating independent and growing cultural institutions. (The Jervois wing is now known as the Mortlock Wing of the State Library of South Australia.) The Art Gallery moved first to the Jervois Wing, then to the Exhibition Building, before occupying a building of its own. The School of Design moved to the Exhibition Building in 1890–1891, although it continued to be run by the Institute until taken over by the Education Department in 1909.
Since 1907 internal alterations and upgrades have been made to the building. The most significant of these was the conversion of the Royal Geographical Society’s rooms into a lecture theatre in 1965 after the society moved to the Jervois Wing. While the State Library controls and uses the building, various organisations have worked from it, including the Institutes Association of South Australia (1912–80), the Women’s Information Switchboard (1978–97), the Women’s Studies Resource Centre (1979–84), the History Trust of South Australia (1981–97) and the Friends of the State Library of South Australia (2007–). The Bradman Collection was exhibited in the building (1998–2008), before moving to its own museum at the Adelaide Oval.
The Institute Building continues to house and provide an important public exhibition venue for the South Australian Society of Arts. Its meeting rooms and the Anne and Basil Hetzel Lecture Theatre are widely used.
Ref: Adelaidea website