Hughes Building

Sir Walter Watson Hughes (1803-1897) came to South Australia from Scotland in the 1840s and established himself as a successful sheep grazier in the Macclesfield area and on York Peninsula.  With the discovery of cooper on his properties his position within colonial society was assured. 

In 1872 in response to a request for a donation from the Council of the newly established Union College he donated the enormous sum of  £20,000.  The generosity of his donation so exceeded expectations that it was decided the money could be better spent being put towards establishing a system of University education.  The University of Adelaide was born.  In the end (and after enormous efforts to elicit additional support for the project), his donation was used to establish a chair in Classics and Comparative Philology and Literature and another in English Language and Literature and Mental and Moral Philosophy.

The eight-storey Hughes Building (with three floors underground) was named in his honour in 1974.  It also commemorates the centenary of the passing of the University Act.  It forms part of a major redevelopment (along with the Wills Building, the southern section of the Barr Smith Library and the Hughes Plaza) of this area of the University.

Today the Hughes Building accommodates Psychology, Philosophy, European Studies & General Linguistics in addition to a variety of administration offices.

Taken from University of Adelaide Archives Information Sheet No.30