The Alpine Retreat Hotel, designed in Tudor Inn style and built by John T. Robinson in 1885, has high local significance as an important township building and a popular holiday destination for Melbourne people for over a century. The hotel has significance for its associations with a number of prominent district residents including John Thomas Robinson and John C. Wildman in the 1880s, and Alice and George Leith and their descendants from the turn of the century unitl the 1980's.

The Alpine Retreat Hotel is a "grand" hotel, set high above Warburton Highway, with views across the river and to the forested mountains beyond. The hotel is designed in the Old English style, popular during the Inter-War period( c1915-c1940), and particularly in the 1930s. It occurs in both domestic architecture and in commercial buildings. Many of the key characteristics of the style are expressed in the design of the Alpine Retreat Hotel including: picturesque asymmetry in overall design, particularly the paired gables over the entry; gables featuring half timbering; face and textured brickwork. Externally, the hotel appears substantially intact, with the only alterations being the introduction of picture windows (presumably replacing the triple-lights that remain elsewhere in the front façade).

Other features of interest include the stone retaining wall set back from the highway, the two grand Norfolk Island Pines, and Canary Island Palm, and the red brick building with terracotta tiled roof to rear west side of the hotel.

Physical Conditions: Excellent

Integrity: Minor Modifications