Avondale Community Hall

Avondale Community Hall in St Georges Road, Avondale. Photo by Ada Bratton, 1990.

This was right where the Hollywood Cinema building is today, but was shifted in 1924. Publican James Palmer donated the combined land to the community in the mid 1860s, and it was placed in the hands of trustees. In 1867, the hall was completed. But there were so many changes and alterations over the years, beyond the 1924 shift. It had a front porch entrance — that went when the last surviving trustee, John Bollard, handed things over to the Avondale Road Board in early 1915, and they went ahead and built a brick frontage with offices above in front of the old wooden hall. That frontage is the front part of the cinema today.

Then the Road Board became the Borough Council in 1922, and they wanted something better than the make-do version from the First World War days. So over onto the other side of the section went the hall, and up went the rest of the Town Hall and auditorium.

It became a city library in the early 1930s after Avondale amalgamated with the city in 1927. In the 1970s the new library was built, so the hall became a Citizens Advice Bureau and traffic offices. During the 1980s, it was our local community centre.

The hall and the cinema building were sold by Council to Jan Grefstad in the early 1990s, and both are still together on the same title.

Haunted Auckland investigated the Avondale Community Hall on Oct 17th, 2020.

 

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