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Kurilpa Library is a heritage-listed library at 178 Boundary Road, West End, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2007. == History == The Kurilpa Library is a two-storey brick building with a projecting central clock tower and addresses the main street in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End. It was constructed by the Brisbane City Council and opened in 1929.〔 The provision of libraries by municipal councils in Queensland is a relatively new phenomenon, with most libraries currently operating having been established since the late 1940s. Previously, Schools of Arts and privately owned Reading Rooms provided books for loan by subscription. Schools of Arts or Mechanics Institutes were established in Britain in the early 1800s with the declared intention of assisting self-improvement and promoting moral, social and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, classes and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that providing access to them for a moderate subscription was an important educational and recreational service. Local councils had sometimes subsidised Schools of Arts and were granted authority in the Local Government Act 1878 to establish and operate libraries, although this was very uncommon until the twentieth century. Kurilpa Library was the first publicly funded municipal library in Queensland and a similar library was opened in South Brisbane soon afterwards. However, local councils did not become seriously involved in the construction of libraries in Queensland until after the Libraries Act 1943 was passed which provided for the establishment of a State Library Board and the improvement of library services throughout the state.〔 The City of South Brisbane was at one time a municipality in its own right, but was amalgamated, together with the other local government authorities of the Brisbane area, into the Brisbane City Council in 1925. The South Brisbane Council urgently requested that its scheme for building a library at West End be progressed. They had been approached by the committee of the West End School of Arts for £2,000 in order to erect a new library with accommodation for a caretaker. Ernest Barstow, Alderman for Kurilpa, supported this request and the City Architect was requested to prepare plans and estimates.〔 The Kurilpa War Memorial Committee provided funding for a clock tower to commemorate the soldiers from the district. The clock played the Westminster Chimes every quarter hour. Kurilpa was the name given to a locality covering South Brisbane, West End and Hill End by local aborigines. European settlers borrowed this name for a small township that grew up within West End, near the existing library and this name is inscribed on the library building.〔 The City Architect was Alfred Herbert Foster who served in this position from 1925 until his death in 1932. Alfred Herbert Foster was an articled pupil of noted architect George Henry Male Addison. He trained and worked in London for six years before returning to Brisbane and forming the practice of Stanley and Foster in 1902. He worked for the Queensland Government, and then became Architectural Assistant to the City Engineer in 1913. During his time as City Architect he designed several well-known municipal buildings including the Fortitude Valley Baths.〔 The building was completed in 1929 and was the first purpose built municipal library in Queensland. The clock and tower formed a distinctive part of the building, emphasising its civic nature.〔 The clock and chimes were unveiled by James Porter Fry, Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Kurilpa on 21 April 1929. The construction of the library helped to reinforce and define the commercial and civic centre of West End.〔 The building is still in use as a library and the upper level rooms are used for meetings. Little change has occurred other than the enclosure of the rear verandah to both floors in late 1959.〔 In the early 1980s complaints by neighbours lead to the chimes of the clock tower being decommissioned. However, they were restored in 2007 with a compromise of chiming only on the hour from 9am to 6pm on weekdays and 10am to 6pm on weekends.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://helenabrahams.com/media40.html )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kurilpa Library」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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