By Chelsea Keim // Place Coorparoo
Before the Coorparoo School of Arts and Memorial Hall formed, it had a past life as the home of the Coorparoo Shire.
Being heritage-listed, this building has been around for many many years and is still being used to this day.
Ron Baker, a retired architect, has been a local of Coorparoo since the 70’s.
He has been involved with the hall for quite some time and is an expert when it comes its history.
Can you tell us about the history of the building?
This grand old building started life as a Shire Hall. The Coorparoo Shire was established in 1888 and they needed a home for their council chambers.
So they built this building and had their first meeting in October, 1892.
It stayed as a Shire Hall until 1925. When all the councils of Brisbane amalgamated to perform the greater Brisbane.
Then Coorparoo School of Arts formed and they took over the building.
The building was used for the School of Arts for a number of years and then the R.S.L got involved. They were looking for a headquarters.
There used to be a name at the front of the building “Coorparoo School of Arts and Memorial Hall and R.S.L. Sub Branch.”
They then moved out and it just became a general use hall, which is what it is today!
We went down to the hall to meet with Ron. There was no better person to show us through this fascinating building.
Take a watch.
We heard you want to make some changes to the front of the building to get it back to it’s original condition. Can you tell us what you had in mind?
We most certainly do.
I actually designed a frontage that will replicate the original Shire Hall.
What we would like to do is remove the brick wall that was put up in the 50’s by the R.S.L. committee and just restore it back to its original design.
The Original Coorparoo Shire Hall. Photo Credit: https: Coorparoo School of Arts and Memorial Hall Facebook
The Coorparoo School of Arts and Memorial Hall today. Photo Credit: Coorparoo School of Arts and Memorial Hall Facebook
What is the hall used for these days?
The hall is used for multiple purposes. We mainly have community groups using it on a regular basis.
We have a widow and widowers dance and social group, a cloggers group, an exercise group, Tai chi, Tae Kwon Do and also we let it out for parties sometimes.
We have also had a couple of concerts here.
The place is suited for so many different activities. There's a shortage of suitable small halls around and this fits the bill, so we’re doing a little bit of community service as well.