The Malachi Gilmore Memorial Hall is a heritage-listed former cinema and dance hall and now multi-use arts space at 124 Oberon Street, Oberon, Oberon Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Virgil Cizzio or Bolton Millane from the firm of Agabiti & Millane and built from 1936 to 1937 by H. A. Taylor. It was also known as the Magna Theatre during the 1950s. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 December 2003.
History
The Malachi Gilmore Memorial Hall was built in 1936-1937 by the local Oberon Catholic Church on land donated by the Gilmore family, a prominent local pioneer family.
Malachi Gilmore (-1921) immigrated from Ireland when he was 38 years old. His brother, Michael Gilmore, had a property near Oberon and Malachi was a frequent visitor who helped run the property after his brother's death, although it appears he never actually lived in Oberon. He did buy a large block of land in the centre of town. He died in Redfern in 1921 aged 77. In 1936 his descendants subdivided his land and gave a large town allotment to the Catholic Church for the purpose of building a community hall.
Construction of the hall was organised by Rev Dr Gummer and funded by money raised by the local community. The architect was Bolton Millane or Virgil Cizzio of Agabiti & Millane, a Sydney architectural firm known for their work for the Catholic Church. The builder was H. A. Taylor, also of Sydney. Curiously, the hall was built in reverse to the architect's plans. Construction began in August 1936 and was completed in 1937. Local red bricks from the Bathurst Brick Company were used to build the hall. The building was designed as both a community hall and cinema with a capacity to seat 500 people. It was officially opened on 22 February 1937.
The first lessee was probably Les Anstiss, who showed movies on Wednesday and Saturday nights. The business was later taken over by Herb David, a local film collector who also took a travelling movie show to Rockley. Movies continued to be shown until the 1970s. From 1937 to 1977, the hall was also the venue for numerous local balls, dances, civic receptions and amateur theatricals, thus playing a central role in the social and cultural life of the town. Local historian Philippa Gemmell-Smith, who was commissioned in 2002 by Oberon Council to write a thematic history of the area, states,
"I am impressed by the enormous significance the building had in the social life of Oberon. The local people were extremely isolated by poor roads and poverty until the 1950s and the social life of the town revolved around this building".
In 1964 the Catholic Church offered the hall to the Oberon Shire Council, which declined the offer. The next year, long-term lessee Herb David bought the hall and renamed it the Magna Theatre. Following the death of Herb David, Oberon Shire Council again declined to buy the hall.
In 1985 the Malachi Gilmore Memorial Hall was purchased by Betta Wool which uses the hall as a storage site for wool and leases the front, foyer section to an arts and crafts shop. In 1987 the facade was restored, attracting a "Heritage and Conservation Award" on 7 April 1987, "Presented to Betta Wool Handlers by R. J. Clough, local member for Bathurst" (according to the framed certificate hanging in the office).
A Flickerfest Short Film Festival was held on the premises in 2001. The Oberon Council's Community Based Heritage Study named the Malachi Gilmore Hall as one of the two best-known buildings in the district.
At the time of the opening of the Malachi Gilmore Memorial Hall a description of the Hall was reported as follows:
It was purchased by new owners in 2017, who sought to renovate the building to use for its original purpose. It was restored with the assistance of funding from the New South Wales Government, and reopened in 2019 as a multi-use arts space.
Description
The Malachi Gilmore Memorial Hall occupies a prominent position in the main street of Oberon. Its asymmetrical façade is a striking Inter-war Art Deco addition to the streetscape of Oberon Street and the town generally.
The façade is rendered concrete with a complex massing of curving and rectangular shapes presenting a stepped skyline to the street. The emphasis is generally horizontal except for a central portion with a vertical pier rising to a height of nearly 14 metres. The metal-framed windows create a grid-like pattern and are stepped in size and proportion to match the stepped façade. Glass bricks form a large curved wall. The building's name is rendered in stylized lettering on the façade.