plans were completed and ready to be sent to the Board for their approval. Tenders were advertised for both the Hare Memorial and the additional classrooms in The Press of 14 June, 1915. The tender of Nightingale Bros was accepted on 5 July, 1915 and the foundation stone laid on 11 August. The Christ’s College Old Boys’ Association Minutes of 9 November record that JCN Grigg offered to provide funds for a clock and, by December 1915, the Editor of the Christ’s College Register was able to write: “The Hare Memorial Library is steadily mounting up, and at present has reached several feet above the first floor.” Once the exterior of the building was completed there was still the matter of the interior fittings. Again the sub-committee was asked to raise money by subscription so that the panelling, bookcases and stone mantelpiece could be completed to the architect’s specifications. The official opening took place on 9 November, 1916 during Sports
Weekend. In the absence of both GHN Helmore, the President of the Christ’s College Old Boys’ Association and Bishop Churchill Julius due to ill-health, Walter Harper, Dean of Christchurch and himself an Old Boy, declared the building open. He spoke of the debt of gratitude that the school had to those who had subscribed to the building. William Gordon Rich, the Head Prefect, who received the keys on behalf of the College, thanked the Old Boys “for erecting such a fine memorial to one whom they had all respected and loved”. About the building, Sir Miles Warren says, “In architectural terms, it is the most important element in the Quadrangle.” Cecil Wood’s use of the Tudor perpendicular and particularly the lengthened and enlarged oriel window are repeated opposite in the Dining Hall that he designed in 1925. These same features have influenced the recently opened Miles Warren Building.
Above: Christ’s College, Hare Memorial Library Lyn St John Maingay Architectural Drawing Collection Reference Code: 156138 Previous page: Hare Memorial Library under construction 1915 Christ’s College Archives. on entering the grounds by the Rolleston Avenue gates, would be more in keeping with the class of institution which Christ’s College now claims undoubtedly to be”. There was on-going discussion with the Board about the interior of the building. They eventually settled on a library, prefects’ room and masters’ room.
In the meantime, the Board of Governors had decided that they would finance an additional classroom block attached to the west of the Hare Memorial Building.
On 16 December, 1914 Cecil Walter Wood was appointed architect and, by the following February,
- Jane Teal
College Issue 29 2015
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