Harvey Town Hall 1914

The historic Harvey Town Hall is a beautiful, country-style hall with an elegant Camellia-pressed tin ceiling located on the main street of Harvey.

The venue is suitable for banquets, theatre-style and cocktail events, musical performances, community events or exhibitions. The hall also has a historic stage.

Adjoining the Hall is a Lesser Hall area and a commercial kitchen. With the freedom to select your catering and other services, you can create a one-of-a-kind event guests will remember.

Capacity: Up to 372 people, including the main and lessor halls.

Facilities: Stage, piano, kitchen facilities, disability access, main and lessor halls.

History

A community hall has been associated with this site since 1899 when a timber hall, known as the Agricultural Hall was constructed. The Harvey Citrus Society used the hall for gatherings of the society members and annual displays of produce.

It quickly became too small.

A new brick hall opened in November 1912. Sadly, it collapsed in June 1913 after a storm, causing the death of a young girl, Emmie Schneider, who was practising piano in the hall for a concert that evening.

With money fundraised by the people of Harvey, another brick hall was designed by Mr G. Stone and built by Mr E. Devereaux.

Mr W. J. George MLA officially opened it in 1914 and is the basis of the current Town Hall.

The old wooden hall was moved on rollers to form the stage and the kitchen on the eastern side of the brick hall.

Soon afterwards WWII broke out and the Drill Hall was added in 1915 as a military hall, today known as the Lesser Hall.

In 1930, a brick picture box was added to the hall, and it became a popular venue for the showing of silent movies and later the ‘talkies’ until the late 1960s. At this time, they installed tiered benches at the back of the hall to accommodate children who annoyed adults by jumping up and down in front during the silent movies. The children were labelled little monkeys, and the seats became affectionately known as the Monkey Racks.

In 1935, further modifications and extensions were made to the hall and the Harvey Road Board office was added. The wooden hall was demolished.