Toodyay Public Library

Toodyay Public Library is located on Stirling Terrace in Toodyay, Western Australia.Early stagesOne of the forerunners to the library was the Newcastle Mechanics' Institute, which formed in 1866. Charles Harper was elected president. By 1869, however, the Institute had begun to decline from lack of public support.The Toodyay Young Men's Reading Club was founded on 30 August 1871 and operated from the government schoolroom into the early 1870s. This club presented lectures; its first lecture was given by Rev. J. M. Innes on Charles Dickens, and another was given Rev. Charles Harper father of Charles Harper, pastoralist, newspaper proprietor and politician in colonial Western Australia on "Phenomena connected with Sound".On 3 September 1873 a "tea-meeting" (replete with singing and comestibles) was held to discuss the merging of the Mechanics' Institute and the Toodyay Young Men's Reading Club, with a view to the construction of a new building for the resultant organisation.Library buildingMechanics' Institute 1874-1921Mr. Leeder of Leeder's Hotel agreed to construct the building on generous terms. The debt to finance the construction was repaid in 20 years. Thomas Davey's tender of ₤235 10s was accepted by the building committee on 7 February 1874, with work to be completed within four months. The finished building became the home of the revived Newcastle Mechanics' Institute and was one of the first civic buildings constructed in the new townsite of Toodyay.