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Commercial Hotel

Location 139 Thompson Street HAMILTON, Southern Grampians Shire File Number HAMDS131 Level Stage 2 study complete

[1/1] 27210 Commercial Hotel

Statement of Significance

This building has regional historic and architectural significance because of its early date as a hotel and as one of a group of 1860s buildings in that section of Thompson Street owned in the late 1860s by Edmund Wadley, gentleman. The earliest section of the hotel dates from 1860 (i) the property being rated in the first surviving 1866 Hamilton Rate Book as hotel and stables owned by Wadley and occupied by John William Fisher, publican. (ii) Its form and detailing were simple and conventional for the time but of particular note is the glazing in the windows. In 1867 Wadley's six Thompson Street properties included the hotel and stables, a butcher's shop, a bootmaker's shop and house, a shop owned and occupied by Wadley, a fancy goods shop and a baker's shop and bakery. (iii)

By 1869 the Commercial Hotel was owned and occupied by Charles Pilven, hotel keeper. (iv) In 1877 Pilven sold the hotel to Mrs Hutcheson, widow of John Hutcheson who operated the Hamilton Flour Mill until his death in 1870. (v) In 1919 the Licence Reduction Board threatened to close the Commercial Hotel because of its delapidated state and the concentration of hotels in the area. (vi) It may be that this triggered the substantial remodelling of the original timber verandah and facade in the early twenties.

The building remains significantly intact (from the 1920s) and is in good condition. It is a key building in the streetscape and is critical for its scale and location on the corner. It is also associated with the Eucalyptus globulus subsp. bicostata, Eurabbie in the street outside which was possibly planted by or under the direction of Ferdinand von Mueller.