MARONG FAMILY HOTEL

The Marong Family Hotel was built in 1917 at the north-east corner of Adams and High streets in the Marong town centre. It replaced an earlier hotel on the site which was burnt down in 1917. The building is a large, single-storey Federation-era structure of brick and stucco, with a horizontal massing and low, spreading proportions. The hotel addresses both Adams Street to the south and High Street to the west, with a corner splay and prominent and ornamented moulded parapet. The sash windows to the west elevation and the westernmost window to the south elevation retain their original form, while other window openings to the south elevation have been dropped almost to ground level and have had plate glass added. Original door openings to the south and west elevations also have render surrounds. The hipped roof form of the main hotel is clad with corrugated sheet steel, and falls to a central valley; there are three rendered brick chimneys. The timber post-supported verandah has a ladder frame frieze. The brick walls have been overpainted to the south and west, while the rear (north) wall of the hotel is exposed brick. 

The Marong Family Hotel is of local historical, social and aesthetic/architectural significance. 

The Marong Family Hotel is historically significant (Criterion A) for occupying the site of the earlier 1860s hotel on this prominent location, and for replacing this building, following a fire, in 1917. It has since that time operated as a hotel and venue for community recreation and entertainment. The current hotel was also built shortly after Marong replaced Lockwood North as the municipal centre of the former Shire of Marong and can be seen as reflecting the confidence of the town at the time. The Marong Family Hotel is of local social significance (Criterion G), as a hotel which has operated continuously since 1917 and as such has been a valued focus of local community recreation and entertainment for many decades; this role is enhanced by its prominent corner location in the centre of town.

The Marong Family Hotel is also of aesthetic/architectural significance (Criterion E). Although built in the Federation period, and substantially intact to that date, it is essentially Victorian in form and proportions. In its moulded parapet, and low, spreading proportions, it parallels a number of other single-storeyed former hotels in the former Rural City of Marong. The prominent and ornamented parapet, including finials and semicircular pediments with rising sun ornamentation in cast cement, which give emphasis to the corner and ends of each street elevation, is a distinguishing element of the Marong Family Hotel. The hotel is also a prominent element of the streetscape, being located at the town's principal intersection, and opposite the former Shire of Marong hall.