The McMillan Hall is a municipal building in Dashwood Square in

Newton Stewart Newton Stewart (Scottish Gaelic language, Gd: ''Baile Ùr nan Stiùbhartach'') is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. The town is on the River Cree with most of the town to ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

, Scotland. The structure, which is used as a community events venue, is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The first municipal building in the town was the old town hall in Victoria Street, which was completed in around 1800. In the early 1880s, the burgh leaders found that the old town hall was inadequate for their needs and, after the local grocers, Peter and William McMillan, left £10,000 in their wills towards the cost of a new town hall, the burgh leaders decided to commission a new structure. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Alan Stewart, 10th Earl of Galloway in August 1884. It was designed by a local architect, Richard Park, in the French Renaissance style, built by local contractors, T. & J. Agnew, in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone and was completed in 1885. It appears that

John Dick Peddie John Dick Peddie (24 February 1824 – 12 March 1891) was a Scottish architect, businessman and a Liberal Party politician. Biography John Dick Peddie and his twin brother William were the second and third sons of James Peddie WS and Margaret D ...

was involved in the design as well. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Dashwood Square with the end bays slightly projected forward as

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s with

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

-shaped roofs; the central bay featured a doorway flanked by

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s supporting a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with a date stone in the tympanum and an

acroterion An acroterion, acroterium, (pl. akroteria) is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed ...

above. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated with tri-partite

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed windows. On the extreme right of the frontage, there was an additional narrow bay, which was recessed and fenestrated by

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s on both floors. Internally, the principal room was the main assembly hall on the first floor. A war memorial, in the form of a

Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...

mounted on a

pedestal A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

, which was intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who had died in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, was unveiled outside the hall in the presence of the Lord Lieutenant of Wigtown, Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet, in June 1921. In 1933, the first of the annual Galloway Pageants took place: the celebrations involved the crowning of the "Queen of Galloway" outside the hall. In 1963, the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

programme, '' Have a Go'', hosted by

Wilfred Pickles Wilfred Pickles, Order of the British Empire, OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter. Early life and personal life Pickles was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. ...

, was broadcast from the hall. The building continued to serve as the offices and meeting place of the burgh council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Wigtown District Council was formed in 1975. However, the building subsequently continued to serve in its traditional role as a community events venue hosting concerts and theatre performances.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1885 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Dumfries and Galloway Newton Stewart

History

See also

References