{"id":4583,"date":"2019-12-11T19:11:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T19:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=4583"},"modified":"2019-12-11T19:11:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T19:11:48","slug":"city-marks-90th-birthdays-of-civic-jewels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/12\/11\/city-marks-90th-birthdays-of-civic-jewels\/","title":{"rendered":"City marks 90th birthdays of Civic jewels"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year City of Newcastle led the charge to a new, more accessible CBD by relocating to a modern office block in the West End.
\nNinety years ago this week it blazed a similar trail, opening City Hall and the Civic Theatre upon completion of a twin \u00a3300,000 development dubbed \u201cCivic Block\u201d.
\nCouncil had by then outgrown a small Watt Street premises, which previously served as military offices during the days of the penal-colony, and moved west in parallel with large-scale industrial expansion.
\n\"Civic-and-City-Hall-build-inside-(1).jpg\"Builders put the finishing touches on Civic Theatre as work progressed on City Hall’s clocktower.<\/sup><\/strong>
\n\u201cToday we\u2019re celebrating the 90th<\/sup>\u00a0birthdays of two jewels in the City\u2019s architectural crown in Civic Theatre and City Hall,\u201d Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said from Wheeler Place, a newly opened street back in 1929 between Hunter and King.
\n\u201cNinety years ago a great weeklong celebration kicked off in Newcastle to mark a development that shaped the City\u2019s Civic Precinct. As well as the two grand openings, bands played for the community in King Edward Park, other entertainment featured a soccer tournament, competitive woodchop, surf carnival and aerial pageant at District Park, while a new floating dock was launched on the harbour.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine those days of British pomp and pageantry, but the sense of civic pride associated with the two openings, and their city-making significance, leaps off the pages of news reports from that week.
\n\"Civic-and-City-Hall-90th-birthday-courtesy-CN-inside.jpg\"City of Newcastle Manager Civic Services Manager with Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes and Manager Civic Theatre Leonie Wallace cutting the 90th birthday cake.<\/sup><\/strong>
\nThe centrepiece of the \u201cCivic Week\u201d festivities was the theatre opening on the night of Thursday 12 December and City Hall two days later by NSW\u2019s British Governor Sir Dudley de Chair, who arrived resplendent in white admiralty regalia.
\n\u201cI congratulate you all upon your enterprise and achievement in the erection of this magnificent and spacious Town Hall, which is to play so important a part in the lives of the people of your city,\u201d said the Governor in his speech on City Hall\u2019s steps Saturday afternoon.
\n\u201cThis great building cannot but have an elevating and inspiring influence in every branch of life and labor in your city, and its erection will always stand as a monument to the foresight, public spiritedness and progressive ideals of your civic councillors.\u201d
\n\"City-Hall-build-inside.jpg\"City Hall under construction.<\/sup><\/strong>
\nMemorial lights dedicated to the founder of the Civic Block, Alderman Morris Light, were unveiled outside Town Hall, as were portraits of the City\u2019s first Mayor, James Hannell.
\nThe Civic Theatre, described by the\u00a0Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner\u2019s Advocate<\/em>\u00a0as one of the \u201cfinest theatres in the Commonwealth\u201d, was \u201ca scene of magnificence\u201d for the Thursday night opening, as guests gathered to enjoy entertainment on a cutting-edge movie screen.
\nThe great racehorse Phar Lap featured in a screening of that year\u2019s Melbourne Cup followed by a recorded oration from then-Prime Minister James Scullin and the romantic drama\u00a0Behind That Curtain<\/em>, the \u201cmost thrilling Talkie Ever Made\u201d according to the official opening night program.
\nIt was like \u201ca palace in a book of fairy tales\u201d, dutifully reported the local newspaper, filled with \u201ca happy, well-dressed crowd, representatives of every form of Newcastle endeavour\u201d who \u201cwitnessed the opening of a theatre glowing with soft lights exquisitely blended, revealing each beautiful feature.\u201d
\n\"Civic-under-construction-inside.jpg\"Civic Theatre under construction.<\/sup><\/strong>
\nNotable billings in the Civic Theatre\u2019s long history include\u00a0The Robe\u00a0<\/em>in 1954, the first film shot in widescreen Cinemascope; Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s\u00a0Cats<\/em>\u00a0The Musical<\/em>\u00a0in 1989, legendary British rock band Oasis in 2002 and local rock gods Silverchair in 2003.
\nThe Civic Theatre is still the hub of live performance in Newcastle and tomorrow\u2019s anniversary evening will double as the 2020 season launch, now an annual event.
\n\"Civic-Theatre-Souvenir-brochure-inside.jpg\"Pages from a souvenir brochure printed for Civic Theatre’s opening.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year City of Newcastle led the charge to a new, more accessible CBD by relocating to a modern office block in the West End. Ninety years ago this week it blazed a similar trail, opening City Hall and the Civic Theatre upon completion of a twin \u00a3300,000 development dubbed \u201cCivic Block\u201d. Council had by … Continue reading “City marks 90th birthdays of Civic jewels”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}