1924, Saturday 13 December. At last, the Port Noarlunga Institute is open.
It has taken almost a decade, interrupted by a devastating world war and the Spanish flu epidemic.
Local builder William H Hollis has created an institute built in the Free Classical style for the grand sum of £1,555 sterling.
The building is built to the specifications of the Port Noarlunga Institute Committee to host balls, concerts, Saturday- night movies, community events and fetes for the increasingly popular seaside town.
Through tireless efforts, the committee has raised the funds or the building plus the £120 that secured the land on Gawler Street in 1920.
The new institute is pleasingly symmetrical, with windows either side of the central door and matching curved parapets along the roof’s edge. Its walls are of solid limestone raised and carted by local volunteers.
It has semi-grand flourishes.
Its front windows and doors are topped with triangular tympanums (moulded decorations) and the painted corrugated steel roof is hipped with half gables.
Inside are a hall, stage, dressing rooms, small library and reading room. A jarrah floor, suitable for dancing, has been laid, and a lantern room for moving pictures is being erected. Electric lights are liberally supplied in all parts of the building.
It will take five more years—until 1929—to open the library addition on the western side, a narrower mirror image of the hall. The new library will boast more than 4,000 books previously housed in the Congregational church and Gladys Skinner’s nearby home.
Percival T Heggaton MP cut the opening ribbon to the applause of the crowd.
The committee members surged forward and opened the double, panelled doors for the institute’s first official functions, a fair and a concert, celebrating a building they hope will serve the community well into the next century.
Today the building, known as the Arts Centre, is a cornerstone of arts in southern Adelaide.
It has an annual program of exhibitions, workshops and performances, and a shop showcasing work from local artists.
Join the centenary celebrations of the Arts Centre on Saturday 7 December. Visit the Onkaparinga Arts Facebook page for more information.
IMAGE: The institute building, circa 1925