28 November 1882 Elder Park Rotunda
28 November 1882 Elder Park Rotunda
The Rotunda in elder Park was given to the people of Adelaide by Thomas Elder and officially opened on 28 November 1882. It was fabricated by MacFarlane’s Saracen Foundry in Glasgow and shipped from London on 14 February. The task of erecting it was taken by Charles Farr who raised the floor eighteen feet. Reporting on the event on 29 November the Observer said:
The portion of ground between King William Road and the Lake is admirably situated as a recreation ground of the kind so frequently met with in continental cities and when it has been levelled and the edges sloped down to the Torrens bank ... there will be no prettier spot around Adelaide than the unpromising looking hollow on which for months past the operation of filling up has been carried on.
City of Adelaide Heritage Survey 1981-86, Parklands, p.62.