Armadale Primary School (fmr)

Parent Place or Precinct

04684 Minnawarra Park, Sugar Gum Trees & Historic Precinct

Statement of Significance

It has aesthetic significance as an example of a former school building dating from the early 1900s with design features typical of the period of construction.
It has historic significance as the first school in Armadale and representing the early history of settlement of the City.
Of very high social significance as represented by the community project to relocate the building is the 1980s.

Physical Description

A single storey face brick former educational building with a rendered band and corrugated iron gabled roof with a brick chimney with corbelling. The school has split paned double hung timber framed sash windows with fanlights on the west side and recent windows on the east side. There is a skillion roofed verandah which is supported by timber posts and balustrades.

History

The school now sits in the Minnawarra Historic Precinct but its original location was on the corner of Third Road and Church Avenue, Armadale. The one time adjacent old Jarrah tree off Church Avenue, remembered by many children who attended the school, is still part of the Armadale Shopping City car park. The school, constructed in 1900, was the first built in Armadale and was extended by an equivalent sized classroom in 1906. The land it was built upon was donated by Thomas Saw, as was the land for the nearby Congregational Church (which often served as an extra classroom for the school throughout its life on the original site). The need to extend the Armadale Shopping City resulted in the sale and demolition of the Armadale Primary School and the building of a new school in Carradine Road, Armadale. In 1987 a committee called “The Armadale School and Congregational Church Relocation Trust” was formed to save the Primary School and Congregational Church buildings. Materials from the demolition of the Church were bought back from those who had contracted to buy them and with a Commonwealth grant and many donors and helpers the Church and School were permitted to be built next to the History House Museum and vested in the City of Armadale. Because there was no funding for the school due to unforeseen circumstances, a novel way of relocating the building was successfully attempted. With brick moving gear, mobile cranes and trucks, the building was moved intact to its new site in Minnawarra Park – perhaps the first brick building to be moved on a public road in the southern hemisphere.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.