Checkered past - The Radford Auditorium

Built in 1867 as a store for the Mounted Police, the building is associated with the nearby former Mounted Police Barracks  and former Armoury. It was later used as a military store by the Colonial and Commonwealth forces.

It is also significant as the first home of the South Australian Archives, established in 1919. This came about under the influence of one George Henderson, a professor of Australian History at the University of South Australia, who believed that Australian universities should foster interest in Australian history, and undertake a 'systematic and scientific' history of the British Empire.

In 1914 he spent a year's leave overseas and as a member of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery board, reported on European archives and record offices; the outcome was the opening in 1920 of the South Australian archives department, the first in Australia.

In the 1970s and early 1980s it also served as the Art Gallery of South Australia's Historical Museum. Now it is used at the Art Gallery of South Australia auditorium.