Molong Soldiers Memorial Town HallPrint Page

The front of the Town Hall building was erected to commemorate those from the district who served in World War One. The foundation stone was laid in 1922. 

A well-attended meeting of the Molong Soldiers' Memorial Committee was held in the Town Hall on Monday evening, when the plans for the erection of a Memorial Front to the Town Hall were submitted. Considerable discussion having taken place, it was decided to secure an amendment of the plans insofar as they concerned the front. Such amendment having since been made, the specifications have been adopted, and tenders are to be invited forthwith for the necessary construction.

The new front, which will come on to the footpath alignment, will be at once ornate and dignified, and prove in every way a fitting memorial to the brave men who, from this district, went abroad to fight in the cause of right, liberty and justice. The construction is to be of terra-cotta bricks and with two supporting columns in the Gothic design, with large arched windows and doorway 8ft. wide, with collapsible iron gates. Over the arched doorway is to be inset a large Australian Coat-of-Arms (the Rising Sun) in manganese bronze, surmounted by a flag pole. The vestibule hall, 12 feet wide by 22 feet in length, is approached by white marble steps, and tiled in black and white.

The memorial tablets are to be inserted in the walls on the left and right of the inner doors in marble, on which will be inscribed the names of those whose heroism is to be thus perpetuated. On one side of the vestibule is to be the Soldiers' Club Room and on the other the office of the Town Clerk, each of 17ft. x 22ft. in dimension, and fitted throughout in keeping with the exterior part of the construction. When this addition to the hall is completed, the local Municipal Council will be faced with the responsibility (and not before time) of extending the main hall and renovating its interior, which at the present time is neither a credit to the town or the wealthy district of which it is the centre.
Molong Express and Western District Advertiser (NSW), 
3 December 1921.

Major-General Cox opened the Molong Soldiers Memorial Town Hall on Anniversary Day. Mr. Kirkpatrick, Minister for Local Government unveiled two magnificent honor rolls of men who left the district to fight for their country. Ald Betts, Mayor of Molong, claimed that the building as a memorial to our soldiers could not be equalled in the whole of the west. The project would ultimately cost £2000, and the bulk of the money had been subscribed by the people of Molong and surrounding districts. An appeal to those present resulted in £170 being subscribed in exactly three-quarters of an hour.
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 
30 January 1923.

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