Eastwood School of Arts

The Eastwood School of Arts was part of a widespread movement that swept colonial Australia from the early nineteenth century onwards. Schools of Arts were originally established by volunteers as independent community organisations, assisted by a small government subsidy, and they thrived as centres of local community life. Their original role was to provide education for adults who had received little formal education as children, and most had lending libraries attached, with the NSW government providing grants for the purchase of books. These institutions were the forerunners of today's public libraries, community centres, and technical education facilities.

The Eastwood School of Arts was founded in 1906, though according to the Dictionary of Sydney, the hall itself was constructed in 1907. It stood on Rowe Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of the growing township — a street that, in the early 1900s, featured several two-storey shops with verandas over the footpath, a few single-storey premises, and vacant land, with horses and carts providing road transport. The hall served as a vital gathering place for the local community during a period of rapid growth, sitting alongside the churches and schools that were also being established in Eastwood before 1914.

The Eastwood School of Arts hall was demolished in 1954. By that time, as colonial and later state governments took greater responsibility for public education, and local councils began to provide free public library facilities, the need for these philanthropic organisations declined, and many School of Arts buildings across NSW were sold or demolished.