FORMER UNITED STATE HOTEL AND VICTORIA THEATRE SITE

The site is first mapped as 29a and 29b of Section R on the 1857 Revised Town Plan of Main Street and shows the Victoria Theatre and United States Hotel. The United States Hotel has a known association with the early American community of Ballarat, hosting annual 4th of July and Presidents Day events. The site is also known to have associated brothels to the rear of the site. The site is known to have partially burnt in 1861, when the Victoria Theatre was dismantled, but the Hotel formally closed in the 1870s. it was likely utilised in the 1870s until the 20th century. Although -1m to -2m are shown in the Ballarat DEM, excavations on the Canadian Chanel show up to 3m of artefact rich fill to the west of the site.  

The site is of high local and archaeological significance. 

The site is of historical significance as the location of an early hotel and theatre during the years of the Victorian gold rush. The later nineteenth century shows the development and likely expansion of the site into commercial/ residential occupation. The site has a known association with the early American community of Ballarat, contain early brothel occupation, in addition to having likely later Chinese occupation. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features that relate to the establishment of commercial operations and the Exchange Hotel in the gold rush, and later 19th-century activities.