From the Herald's H2 section ACROSS the Hunter, schools of arts buildings and mechanics institutes survive to tell a story of ambition, aspiration and the best of the human spirit. These public places, sometimes humble timber structures, sometimes grand "statement" buildings, have served communities well, some for almost 150 years. They are in abandoned Hunter villages, such as Baerami, and fast-changing cities, such as Newcastle and Maitland. Even individual suburbs had their own; Tighes Hill's is a true beauty and is now a retro dress shop. In a throw-away age of obsolescence and residential expansion, most of them have defied change. Even better, they have supporters and protectors to provide the help they will need to survive into a third century. Without places such as these, Elisabeth Beale believes Hunter rural communities will be without a heart, a place of refuge and a central focus for the ceremonies that underpin our social life. Beale is on the committee that looks after the Woodville School of Arts. The present building was built in the 1920s but started life in the 1870s, when Woodville's Mutual Improvement Society needed a place to meet. The genesis of the building is typical of the international movement that brought self-improvement through education to Australia and the Hunter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. University of Newcastle academic Greg Preston said the schools of arts and mechanics institutes offered unprecedented opportunities for education. "They were the only place where women could get an education above primary school," Preston said. A 1991 book by Preston, Barbara Heaton and Mary Rabbitt listed more than 70 schools of arts and institutes in the Hunter from Aberdeen and Adamstown, to Woodville and Vacy up to 1914. Schools of arts at Muswellbrook, Morpeth, Cessnock, West Wallsend and Maitland are grand buildings, as is the Lambton Miners and Mechanics Institute. "They [buildings] say 'here we are, we are an important community'," Preston said. The buildings were often paid for and built on land donated by the philanthropist businessmen of the day, men such as William Arnott. Architectural historian Les Reedman said top Hunter architects, such as the Penders and Frederick Menkens, designed the buildings. "They were statement buildings about the importance people placed on education," Reedman said. Preston said mechanics institutes were more likely to be left-wing, controlled by the workers and catered for "miners and their lanterns". Schools of arts delivered a more general, perhaps more genteel, education. Preston said the institutions reflected the community's needs. There was something in it for the bosses, too. Reedman said employers wanted to foster a supply of talented and skilled workers. For the Woodville group, raising money to maintain the building and make it a modern venue are the big challenges. "Do we take down the World War I gun?" asked Beale. "Where is the line between keeping it [the building] authentic and historic"? Woodville's school of arts is the hall for the Iona Public School. "It is the much-loved heartbeat of the school," Beale said. The fate of Lochinvar's now dilapidated, apparently unwanted school of arts building hangs in the balance. The ageing trustees do not want to continue their duties and Maitland City Council has refused to take it over, partly because of a lack of community interest. This may result in the state government taking control of the land. These old buildings usually are built on Crown land. New residential developments come with their pre-designed public open spaces and community centres - all part of the conditions of development consent and paid for by developer contributions. Woodville school of arts committee treasurer and Dun's Creek resident Helen McCall said the hardest job for a community taking on one of these old buildings is complying with antiquated legislation formed in the early 20th century and finding people willing to put in the time. "If no one is prepared to stand, there could be an argument put to the minister that there is no longer an interest in the land," McCall said. "They should go to the council but the next step is sales. "We might be fighting a losing battle." Wickham school of arts appears to have lost its battle. A prized architectural asset for Newcastle, and where it is said poet Henry Lawson went to night classes, it sits abandoned, next to Newcastle's renewal showpiece Honeysuckle. The substantial 1875 Newcastle school of arts building remains on the corner of Hunter Street and Wolfe Street. A cafe occupies the mall corner frontage of the building, part of the re-emerging commercial life of the mall. The Paterson school of arts building has been a private residence for at least 50 years. Its current residents are Noeline and Malcolm Watson, who bought the building in 1963. The building is in Paterson's main street and Watson said the large building has been a "comfy" place to live in. "It was cheap and we were desperate because our landlord at the time was driving us mad," Watson said. It has advantages for a married couple, she said. "If you've had an argument you can stay at each end of the building and never see each other." In the village of Wollombi, famous for bushrangers and Aboriginal culture, land was set aside for a school of arts on the banks of the Congewai Creek. The historic village secured a courthouse, post office and school but the school of arts was never built. Residential development is likely to turn its back on the quaint Lochinvar school of arts in favour of a 21st-century community centre or multipurpose centre. A similar situation is developing at Wallalong, where there are plans for 10,000 new residents. Residents fear Woodville and what has become the symbol of its rural history, the school of arts, will be swept away by the pressure of development and the desire for newer and bigger community assets. It is not unlike the decline of the schools of arts and institutes, which occurred mainly because they were so successful. They evolved into free public libraries and from 1913, a government public education system, including technical colleges that we know today as TAFE. Roll of honour for places of learning  DIGITISED newspapers on the National Library of Australia’s Trove website (trove.nla.gov.au) show details of openings of the schools of arts and mechanics and literary institutes, minutes of committee meetings and lectures held at the venues. While some of these buildings are still at the heart of the communities, valued and cared for, some no longer survive. ● Aberdeen, School of Arts, 1892. ● Abermain, School of Arts Cessnock Road, Abermain, 1913-16. ● Adamstown, Mechanics Institute, 1879. ● Anvil Creek, School of Arts, 1879. ● Baerami, School of Arts, 1885.   ● Bandon, Grove, School of Arts, 1901. ● Belmont, School of Arts, 1914. ● Boolaroo, School of Arts, 1905. ● Branxton, Mechanics Institute, 1862 or 1866. ● Broadmeadow, Mechanics Institute, 1892. ● Broke, School of Arts, 1896. ● Buledelah, School of Arts, 1881. ● Bulga, School of Arts, 1893. ● Cardiff, Mechanics Institute, 1910. ● Carrington, School of Arts, 1898. ● Cessnock, School of Arts, 1908. ● Charlestown, Literary Institute, 1877. ● Clarence Town, School of Arts, 1879. ● Copeland, School of Arts, 1890. ● Denman, School of Arts, 1872. ● Dudley, School of Arts, 1895. ● Dungog, School of Arts, 1898, Dowling Street, Dungog. ● East Maitland, Mechanics Institute, 1859. ● Glen Oak, School of Arts, 1898. ● Gloucester, School of Arts, 1905. ● Gresford, School of Arts, 1890. ● Greta, Miners and Mechanics Institute,  1876. ● Greta, School of Arts, 1890. ● Gundy, Mechanics Institute, 1903. ● Hamilton, Mechanics Institute. ● Hinton, School of Arts, 1869. ● Holmesville, School of Arts, 1908. ● Islington, Mechanics Institute, 1884. ● Jerrys Plains, School of Arts. ● Jesmond, Mechanics Institute, 1901. ● The Junction, School of Arts, 1896. ● Kurri Kurri, School of Arts, 1905. ● Lambton, Miners and Mechanics Institute, 1867. ● Largs, School of Arts, 1875. ● Lochinvar, School of Arts, 1908. ● Merriwa, School of Arts, 1869. ● Merewether, School of Arts, 1882. ● Minmi, Mechanics Institute, 1879. ● Moonan Flat, School of Arts, 1901. ● Morisset, School of Arts, 1901. ● Morpeth, School of Arts, 1860. ● Murrurundi, School of Arts and Mechanics Institute, 1873.  ● Muswellbrook, School of Arts, 1867. ● Neath, School of Arts, 1911. ● Newcastle, School of Arts, 1875. ● New Lambton, Mechanics Institute, 1900. ● Paterson, School of Arts, 1868. ● Plattsburg, Mechanics Institute, 1878. ● Pokolbin, School of Arts, 1902. ● Raymond Terrace, Mechanics School of Arts, 1867. ● Rothbury, School of Arts, 1902. ● Rouchel,  School of Arts, 1913.  ● Seaham, School of Arts, 1901. ● Scone, School of Arts, 1868. ● Singleton, Mechanics Institute, 1866. ● Stroud, School of Arts, 1859. ● Smedmore (Wickham) Mechanics Institute, 1894. ● Stockton, Literary Institute, 1894. ● Teralba, School of Arts, 1902. ● Tighes Hill, School of Arts, 1879. ● Toronto, School of Arts, 1894. ● Vacy, School of Arts, 1900. ● Wallarah, (Catherine Hill Bay), School of Arts, 1899. ● Waratah, School of Arts, 1865. ● West Maitland, School of Arts, 1854. ● West Wallsend, School of Arts, 1893.  ● Wickham, School of Arts, 1881. ●  Woodville, School of Arts, 1876. ● Young Wallsend (Edgeworth), Literary Institute, 1894. Source: Science Success and Soirees, the Mechanics Institute Movement in Newcastle and the Lower Hunter, Barbara Heaton, Greg Preston, Mary Rabbitt.
