Mechanics Institute (Fremantle)

A Mechanics Institute was formed in Fremantle in 1851 after a meeting 8 August at Wellard’s Hotel (previously the Crown and Thistle and now the site of the Cleopatra Hotel in High Street).

Hitchcock 1919:
At the corner of Cliff and Dalgety-streets where Mr. Antoine’s office now [1929] is, was the Mechanics’ Institute. The librarian was a Mr. H. W. Young, who had been a solicitor in England. His position was practically honorary, and he was rarely in the institute owing to other engagements. Anyone wanting a book had merely to walk in, take it from the shelf, and enter it in a book kept on the table for that purpose.

Ten years later a Working Man’s Association also came existence - in 1862. The Association provided a subscription library, leasing a reading room - possibly in Pakenham or Henry Streets - and was in receipt of a grant of £50 to support the library. The Mechanics Institute did not receive such a grant, as it was apparently thought, paradoxically, that the Association was more like a Mechanics Institute than the Institute itself. (See Harris, 2019.)

The two organisations became one in 1868 - as the Fremantle Literary Institute - on the corner of Cliff Street and Dalgety St (now Croke Lane).

[[Organisations/buildings/img/litinst.jpg|]]

The first Literary Institute building

The second Literary Institute building

The second Fremantle Literary Institute had a reading room as well as loaning books. It was built in 1899 in South Terrace on the corner of Collie Street - the building now thought of as the Dome.

References and Links

Harris, Pam 2019, 'From card catalogue to eBooks: a history of Fremantle City Library, 1851-2016', paper presented to the Fremantle History Society on its Studies Day 2016, Fremantle Studies, vol. 10.

Neville, Simon J. 2007, Perth and Fremantle: Past and Present, privately published, WA.

Reece, Bob 2022, '"Working class" organisations in late 19th Century Fremantle', Fremantle Studies, 11: 28-40. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2017]

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 16 December, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/organisations/mechanics.html (it was last updated on 24 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.