Launceston Mechanics' Institute Building

 The foundation stone for the Launceston Mechanics' Institute was laid on 24 June 1857, and the building was officially opened on 9 April 1860. 

Tragically, a life was lost in the construction of the building, and we are indebted to FOLMI member Angela Prosser-Green for this transcription of a report on the accident from the Cornwall Chronicle;

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

FRIGHTFUL AND FATAL ACCIDENT AT THE NEW MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

About seven o'clock on Saturday morning last, the men employed in raising the girders for the roof of the new Mechanics' Institute were loosing the tackling from a girder which had been lifted to its place on the previous evening, for the purpose of raising another. Charles Trinder, a stonemason, and a very efficient active man at such work, was standing on the girder, loosing and handing down the tackling with the blocks to the Fore man, when, unfortunately, one of the carpenters shifted the foot of the girder next St John-street with a crowbar. It had been rested on a beam of wood, which was very wet with the heavy night dew, and this caused the girder to slip round, until it got off its support on both walls, and only rested in an angular portion on the beam, where it had originally been placed. The men had not got to their stations at the windlass in Cameron-street, and   the guy-rope attached from the girder to it slacked, allowing the girder to cant over and fall with poor Trinder on it to the first floor, a distance of 26 feet. The unfortunate man saw his danger, and screamed out to his fellow-workmen to hold on by the girder; but the damage was done, and nothing could avert the consequences. The immense girder,   formed of strong beams, fell with a tremendous crash, breaking one of the beams in two as if it had been a mere sapling. Poor Trinder's head struck against a rafter, and that injury alone would no doubt have caused instant death,— but, in addition to that, the front bones of his chest and his ribs were crushed in such a manner as must have caused almost instant death The Foreman, who was standing under the girder taking the tackling from Trinder at the time it swayed round, had a most miraculous escape, for it was impossible for him to know under the circumstances which way to run for safety. Immediately after the accident the Foreman ran to Dr. Maddox's, and found that gentle man ready to step into his gig, to go down the river, so that in five or six minutes after the accident occurred he was beside the injured man, but prompt as he was in his attendance, before he reached the spot poor Trinder had expired. All Dr. Maddox could do was to ascertain the nature of the injuries which had been the immediate cause of death, and direct that the deceased might be laid out where he was to await the coroner's inquest. The corpse of the healthy robust man who had cheerfully commenced his work about half-an-hour before was then covered over, and the ladders which gave access to the first floor where he lay were taken down, to prevent any person from visiting the place until the coroner and jury should see it, just as it appeared immediately after the accident. The wife and several of the children of de ceased heard but too soon of what had occurred, and lingered long about the building, looking up with weeping eyes to the spot where they were told the dead man lay. The jurors were summoned, and met the coroner, Francis Evans, Esq., at the London Hotel at two o'clock. The following were sworn : — Messrs. Bruce R. Harvey, (foreman,) Henry   Button, Henry Turner, Robert Bain, Joseph Grigg, R. H. Price, and S. Joscelyne.     Accompanied by the coroner, they ascended to the floor where the body, beside the fragments of the ponderous girder, lay. Having heard the particulars of the accident described on the spot, they returned to the London   Hotel, and the facts being so clear, the jury   were satisfied of the cause of death on hearing   the following evidence : — Dr. Maddox sworn — I have just viewed the of Charles Trinder now lying dead ; I was   called at half-past seven o'clock, this morning, to see him ; I found him lying nearly in the   same position he is in now ; I examined the body externally, I believe that the whole front part of the chest is fractured ; there is a wound   on the head on the left frontal bone ; I think   the skull is fractured ; the right arm is broken above the elbow ; I should think the immediate cause of death is the fracture of the front part of the chest ; the injuries are such as   would be inflicted on a body by falling from a   great height.   William Hawkshaw, sworn— I am a mason by trade ; I am foreman over the masons employed at the Mechanics' Institute ; I was employed there this morning, the deceased and   I went up to the scaffolding to release the blocks from the girder ; he went on the girder and released the blocks ; we were pulling down the blocks to take up another girder ; in   doing so the girder swung round with deceased on it until it accidentally slid off the wall and fell a distance of 26 feet and deceased with it ; after the accident John Lewis came to my   assistance, and we found deceased lying on   the girder, he moaned three times faintly and then expired ; I was pulling down and he was lowering the blocks when the girder swayed over ; I ran to the angle next Cameron-street and only in that way escaped being struck by it in its fall; deceased was a very expert man with such tackling ; I believe that every precaution was used that could be thought of, and  when we go to raise another girder it must be by the same means ; one of the workmen lifted the end of the girder with a bar, and   that was the cause of its sliding, and as the   other men had not got to their stations, of the   accident ; the wood was slippery, not with frost, but with heavy dew; I believe the fall of the girder was altogether accidental.   The jury then recorded a verdict of "Accidental Death."  Cornwall Chronicle 8 June 1859 p5 col 2-3.