On January 26, 125 years ago, Maitland City Council laid the foundation stone of the West Maitland Town Hall.
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It is not known where the mayor Dr RJ Pierce laid the stone in January 1888, but when the town hall was erected two years later his stone was carefully installed within the front portico on the west wall.
Once the first stone was safely laid, the West Maitland Municipal Council proceeded to advertise for suitable designs, offering a first prize of 70 pounds and a second prize of 20 pounds.
Thirty-five entries were received but Maitland architects scooped both prizes.
The consolation prize went to the senior firm of JW Pender, a Scottish builder turned architect who had settled in the Hunter in 1857.
The winners, however, were two much younger architects, James Warren Scobie and his partner Arthur Lee.
Lee and Scobie had entered into partnership only four months earlier. Both were from Oakhampton.
Although Lee and Scobie had entered the competition for the town hall as a firm, the design was exclusively the work of Scobie.
Lee was in England throughout the critical months of the design period and he openly acknowledged this in his speech at the opening of the hall in 1890.
Scobie was only 25 when he prepared the designs.
The corner stone of the porch was laid on March 1, 1889 by Mrs Gillies, the wife of the new mayor, although the stone, still prominent on High Street, bears only her husband’s name.