Student number: 2040006

ARCH8302 Major Assignment:

Archive Research ofThebarton Town Hall, 1927.

By Rani Attwood

Aims:

The purpose of this study was to research Thebarton’s ‘New Town Hall’, built in 1927; using the necessary South Australian historical archives.It is now known as the ‘Thebarton Theatre’ and is still widely used today as a popular music and entertainment venue. Due to the Thebarton Theatre’s continued presence in South Australia’s social history as a major place of public gathering and entertainment, it seemed appropriate and relevant to research its’ history and the land it was built on.This research was conducted in order to better understand the lifestyles and views of historic Thebarton and Adelaide since European settlement.

Methods:

Initially, it was not certain where to begin looking to find answers about Thebarton Theatre’s construction, ownershipand history. Adelaide’s State Library seemed an appropriate location to start searching forbackground information however and it was here that a booklet outlining the Theatre’s grand opening on June 11th, 1928 (Appendix A) was found, along with two photographs: one from the Mayor’s receptionin 1922(Appendix B); and one depicting a debutante ball held at the Theatre during the 1940s (Appendix C).

The research conducted at Adelaide’s State Library, although quite fragmentary in the limited quantity of material pertaining to the Theatre’s construction itself; proved to be quite useful for providing the initial names of the building: ‘Thebarton Town Hall’ and ‘New Town Hall’, a name used by local towns people and the mayor in the Official Opening booklet (Appendix A) and his 1927 annual report (Appendix D). This small piece of information aided the research in knowing additional names of the building that could be then searched, even though the materials sourced were only secondary materials.

From here, the State Records archive services situated in Adelaide were also searched forthe possibility of relevant, primary sources. As was the case at the State Library, initially the research was proving to be unfruitful. In the end, the aid of a State Records archive staff member was requested to assist the search. The search was widened from the keywords: ‘Thebarton Town Hall’ to ‘West Torrens Council’ after realising (due to the archive staff and the official opening booklet for the Thebarton Theatre), that Thebarton Town Hall was built by the local council: the ‘Thebarton Corporation’ and ‘Thebarton council’; who are said to have amalgamated with the council of West Torrens in later years (see notes in Appendix F).

Despite searching the State Records archived material for additional links of the Thebarton Town Hall with that of Thebarton council however, there were limited items of historic relevance pertaining to the building’s actual construction in primary materials. What was available and requested from the Gepps Cross Research Centre however, were letters of correspondence from the then Thebarton Council town clerk C. E. Wyett (see Appendix A ii) in reference to the ‘proposed New Town Hall’.

While this material required one and a half hours to be sent to the city’s State Records Service branch, the council of West Torrens was visitedin an attempt to source architectural drawings, sketches or other related materials of Thebarton’s Town Hall’s construction planning process. Unfortunately, and surprisingly; the council itself did not have any information such as this or materials by the description above for an historic building such as the Thebarton Theatre. Desk staff suggested the West Torrens Library across the park be visited however, along with the ‘West Torrens Historical Society’ at Kumbalar house on Marion Rd.

Whilst the West Torrens Library provided additional secondary sources of local history books regarding the Thebarton’s New Town Hall, they did not have any primary sources other than very recent newspaper clippings discussing musical acts and the potential selling of the Theatre in 2007.

Perhaps even more confusing was the conflicting information gained from the local history books about Thebarton, stating that the Thebarton Theatre was opened in 1927 (Payne: 1996), despite the booklet found at Adelaide’s State Library; inviting patrons to the Grand Opening in 1928 (Appendix A).

The Official Opening of Thebarton Town Hall’sbookletdepicts a photograph of the theatre, displaying the date of ‘1927’ on the building itself.This suggests that perhaps the theatre was built in 1927, but only opened to the public in 1928. It seems that some sources have possibly been confused in the writing process? In the end the West Torrens Library also suggested that the West Torrens Historical Society be visited or at least beenquired about their collection materials.

The West Torrens Historical Society staff did not answer any phone calls regarding their collections however and were not present at their premises either. This was quite a shame because they are listed in the West Torrens directory as having letters, photographs and other primary sources of information regarding the old towns of West Torrens and its buildings.

They would most certainly have information and old photographs of the New Town Hall. This is definitely an avenue worth following, unfortunately time constraints for this project meant that other sources of information relating to Thebarton’s historic building had to be sourced as a matter of priority. The Historical Society apparently hold a meeting one every month.

Returning to the State Records Services in Adelaide, the letters of correspondence between Thebarton Council’s town clerk and contractors, architects and material suppliers were looked over and read. This source of information contained much relevant material about the physical construction of the Thebarton Theatre and most importantly- dates for each item.Everything from loans requested from Adelaide’s Commonwealth Bank, to the list of extra fittings required for the new theatre; along with their approximate cost-were available for perusal (see notes in Appendices Fi-F iiii).

This may in fact sound like quite a lot of unrelated, unnecessary material, considering that no architectural sketches of the building, old photographs of any part of the building, or information regarding original land use before the building was constructed- were not found; but considering the immense lack of any real historical information available regarding the Thebarton Theatre in general, this bound book of letters, quotes and architectural correspondence- was far better than no information at all.

In the end, notes were taken of these letters to record approximations of cost, loan sizes and other pieces of information that may come in handy; such as the names of the contracted architects sourced and main company that supplied plaster for the building (Appendix Fiii). Photographs (without a flash) were also taken of hand drawn sketches depicting decorative cornice work to be installed in the new theatre during decoration stages (Appendix G). In terms of the amount of information at this stage acquired for this project, the attitude that was held here was one of “Beggars can’t be choosers!”

After the State Records Service branch in the city closed for research, the online services of the West Torrens Historical Society were accessed, in the attempt to locate someone or something with which to trackdown primary sources of historical documents. At first, it seemed that another dead end was met becauseonly the phone numbers of the secretary and Historical Society body were listed as people to call for any further information regarding their collection.

This was despite the unanswered phone calls made to the society for this project;in an attempt to access more information. Thankfully, a ‘research’ tab was available on the West Torrens Historical Society’s website, linking to the West Torrens Library, where apparently one could search the entire Historical Society’s collection online.

The excitement about this possibility was imaginable, as mentioned previously, this function alleged to hold collections of maps, photographs, letters and more. The materials recovered through the West Torrens Library’s ‘Local History’ collections page that were relevant to this study, included the Thebarton Council mayor’s reportin 1927 (Appendix D), which had a photograph (Appendix D-i) and sketch included of New Town Hall (Appendix D), an additional opening night photographfrom 1928 (Appendix E) and accounts detailing the new theatre’s construction costs (Appendix D-ii).

Land Services were visited next in an attempt to find information regarding previous owners of the Thebarton Theatre as well as any information about previous uses of the land before the theatre was built. The current owners and lease holders of Thebarton Theatre were found, along with two previous owners dating back to 1909 (see Appendix K). Apparently the accessible records only extended this far unless an archive request was made regarding this property record, in which case 48 hours and viewing approval would be needed to access the material.

Unfortunately however, time was of the essence and each land title printed depicting the owners and dates of transfer, were provided for a charge-another limited factor for the research. The title certificate numbers and transfer record numbers were printed out with the two previous titles accessed however, to ensure that if future research is required that does have the time and money to search further- they will find the necessary material easily.

It was unfortunate however that other material about the theatre and its land could not be gained at Land Services, as it was hoped that old maps, previous dwelling information and such could be found in their records in order to infer more of life at the site from initial European settlement. It is feared perhaps,that the right questions or simply further questions, were not asked of the Land Services staff, resulting in less material gained that may have assisted in such analysis. In hindsight, it is a difficult lesson to learn in view of impending research requirements.

Results:

In 1909, John Wesley Bond, (a watchmaker and jeweller) and Mark Attril (a miner) sold the piece of land located on allotments 3, 4, 5 and a portion of allotment 2 in the Torrensville estate (the current theatre’s location), to Emma Eugina Bond (Appendix K). It was registered in her name on July the 13th, in 1910 (Appendix K). On the 22nd of February, 1922, Emma Eugina Bond is recorded asselling this land to the Corporation of the Town of Thebarton, where it was registered on the 18th of April, 1923 (Appendix J).

Four years later, the Thebarton Theatre was built in 1927 as ‘Thebarton New Town Hall’ to replace the Old Town Hall built in 1885 (see the Mayors November Report of 1928, Appendix D). It was built on lots three and four of part lots two and five on Henley Beach Road, Torrensville within the Corporation of the town of Thebarton (see Letters of correspondence notes, Appendix F-i).A foundation stone is known to have been laid on September the 14th, in 1927 at a ceremony conducted by the then Mayor Hatwell (Appendix F-i).

The architects that held the contract for the New Town Hall wereKaberry and Chard Architects from Sydney New South Wales, the “Theatre Architect Specialists” (see Correspondence letters notes, Appendix F-iiii). The supervising architect was E. F Choate and the builder was Mr. E. Colgate (Clifford Theatres Ltd: 1928) (Appendix A-ii).

Both of these men were naturally paid extensively for their services, with multiple payments recorded in the council’s letters of correspondence (Appendix F-iiii). The total cost and loan taken for the new theatre’s construction by Thebarton Council was 30,000 pounds with the land itself costing 1,940 pounds to purchase (see Mayor’s November Report 1927, Appendix D-ii).

These letters also tell us the immense attention to detail taken by all who worked on the New Town Hall, with 12 other contractors listed for decorative work, furnishings,lighting, theatre seating, rubber, plumbing and metal work (Clifford Theatres Ltd: 1928) (Appendix A-ii). The decorative work was known to have been lavish, and included gold leaf gilding for the lettering on the theatre’s entrance (see notes in Appendix F-i)In terms of fire safety awareness, the theatre was also prepared with fireproof paint on the entrance doors, eight hand fire extinguishers located throughout the building,12 exit doors, a direct telephone installed to the fire brigadeand a fireman who was present at all times (see Mayor’s 1928 Report, Appendix L).

The ‘Official Opening of Thebarton Town Hall’is known to have been held for the public on June 11th, 1928, (Clifford Theatres Ltd: 1928) to a sell-out audience. The theatre, although claiming to comfortably seat 2,000 attendees, held a ‘Grand Carnival Week’ to ensure that all members of the public could attend the celebrations of the New Town Hall (Clifford Theatres Ltd: 1928).

The first lease to be held on the theatre was by D. Clifford Theatres Ltd, who leasedthe theatre from the Corporation of Thebarton, for 21 years;dating from 1928 to 1949 (see Mayor Hatwell’s 1927 report in AppendixD). They were known to have provided cinema facilities for the public, including the opening week of entertainments (Payne: 1996).

Other functions reportedly held at Thebarton Theatre includes: school concerts, ballroom dancing, graduation ceremonies and Sunday school anniversaries (Payne: 1996: 200). In the 1960s, Greek film nights and wrestling tournaments were also hosted by the theatre, as well as the National Table Tennis Championships, held in 1986 (Payne: 1996: 200).

Today, the records inform us that the City of West Torrens currently owns the Thebarton Theatre (Appendix H).Weslo Holdings Pty Ltdis reported to hold the current lease from the council; which was acquired in 1989 (Appendix I).It continues to serve a mainly musical function in 2009, hosting some prominent artists of today including: The John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins, Xavier Rudd and even Marilyn Manson.

Discussion:

The sources of information that were available proved to be quite useful to gain a background of how, when, and why the Thebarton Theatre was built. It is difficult however to go much deeper in historical analysis when such little primary material was found, especially when some of the secondary sourced material used out of necessity; were found to have discrepancies regarding important aspects such as the date the theatre was constructed.

Another difficulty that was encountered during the research process, was finding what was initially thought to be material about the New Town Hall of Thebarton, only to realise later however that it was actually material regarding Old Town Hall instead. This is what occurred with thefirst photographs listed at the beginning of this report from the State Library. Only once collected, was it realised thatthey did not quite match the interior of the Thebarton Theatre of today; making them the historic collections of the Old Town Hall built in 1885 (see Mayors’ Report of 1928, Appendix L), not the New Town Hall being researched.

Due to the State Library’s filing of this material under the general subject of ‘Thebarton Theatre’ related collections however, combined with the problem of not being a local; made research situations like these quite difficult and easily confuseddue to the similar names of two separate (but related) buildingssituated in the one township.

The limited material about the Thebarton Theatre building is even more surprising considering that it is reported to be listed on the State Heritage Register (Payne: 1996: 132). A building of this heritage importance to the state would be assumed to have considerable historical material collected and saved relating to it, to ensure its social and historic value were known to locals and visitors.

Archaeological potential:

As mentioned previously, it would have been wonderful to find more historical material and information about what was previously located at 112 Henley Beach Road, Torrensville; the theatre’s current address. As it stands, the researched sources were able to inform us who owned the land from 1901 until today, and that the theatre was built on this land in 1927, but no information was available to indicate what previously existed at the theatre’s current location if anything, before the theatre was built.

Questions such as whether the land was bare when John Wesley Bond and Mark Attril sold it to Emma Eugina Bond in 1909, and what remained of the land and possible dwelling when she subsequently sold it to the Corporation of the town of Thebarton- need to be answered before any serious suggestion of its archaeological potential can be provided.If further research with greater time and financial support was conducted into the history of the Thebarton Theatre’s land, which produced results that detailed a prior residence or other site of high significance; then perhaps the locationof the theatre could be claimed to contain archaeological potential.