Ipswich School of Arts Library & Reading Room, School of Arts | Old Town Hall, Brisbane Street (1865-1921)

The Moreton Bay Courier, Saturday 20 July 1850

Thursday, 25th July -- A meeting pursuant to notice, was held this evening, at 7 P.M., at the Court House, for the purpose of taking into consideration the expediency of establishing a Reading Room and Library.  F.A. Forbes, Esq., being unanimously voted to the chair, called upon Dr. Challinor to move the first resolution, which he did in the following language:-

... That the present state and future prospects of this rapidly increasing town and neighbourhood are such as to render it very desirable to establish a public institution for supplying the inhabitants with a fair amount of Colonial and European news and for the attainment and diffusion of useful knowledge generally.

Domestic Intelligence: Ipswich, The Moreton Bay Courier, Saturday 3 August 1850, p.2

By September 1850, the Ipswich Literary Institution had opened a subscription library and reading room, on the corner of Wharf and Brisbane Streets.  The reading room provided subscribers access to the Moreton Bay Courier,  Moreton Bay Free Press, Sydney Morning Herald, People's Advocate, Bell's Life in Sydney, Government Gazette, Maitland Mercury, and the Melbourne Argus.  Initially, the Library only had a few donated books and some volumes on loan, until additional titles were procured from Sydney.

Following the opening of the Courthouse, in East Street in 1859, the School of Arts Library and Reading Room relocated to buildings, later described as a "wooden shanty", previously occupied by the Courthouse in Brisbane Street (this site would later become the Ipswich Post Office).  

In 1858, the Queensland Colonial Government was approached to provide a grant of land for a permanent School of Arts.  Governor Bowen laid the foundation stone on 8th February 1861 and opened the first section on 24th October of that year.  This section contained the hall and classrooms, built at a cost of £150.

The Brisbane Street facing extension was added in 1864, to be used as council chambers and municipal officers.  The library and reading room was also relocated to the first flood, on the eastern side of the building, remaining here until 1921.  As the School of Arts faced financial difficulty, control of the building was transferred to the Ipswich Municipal Council in 1869.