Circa 1853
William Hitchcock and James Farrell were among the original owners of the three storey brick Metropolitan Hotel on the corner of Mostyn and Hargraves Streets in around 1853 to 1856. Owners and licensees changed multiple times over the years, later on becoming Kenyon’s Metropolitan Hotel. The licensee renewal application of July, 1913 shows owner Sarah Esther Pearson bought the hotel in 1902 with Kate Ann Kenyon, Licensee. Mr Newell, representing Sarah, gives a wonderful description of the interior stating the hotel has ’14 rooms, with seven bedrooms, five for public use and two private. Two are unused and unfurnished. Public bedrooms are on the third floor. Access is by a narrow stairway, very straight. The fire escape is rope and a hook that can be let down’. No stabling. No urinal. A stranger to the hotel would not know that the closets behind belong to the hotel. The balcony was built in around 1906 at a cost of Pd200. Evidence given Mrs Kenyon kept cleaner than most other hotels.
Back in May, 1858, a Coroner’s Inquest at the hotel was held on Jane Mason, wife of George, from the Survey Office. Evidence given is that she had a drinking addiction, argued with her husband and fell in the backyard. She was carried to bed, the chemist and druggist being called but she was dead.
On New Years Eve, 1896, a person with knowledge of the place, entered upstairs rooms, filled a pillowslip with cigars, then throwing the parcel into the yard at the rear of Mr. Walker’s shop. Mr Walker heard the noise and notified Miss Zeigler, the barmaid and Miss Hannan, Licensee on finding the slip full of damaged cigars. Robbery foiled.
There was a history of use of the hotel by the railways for their workers with a standing order for three beds three nights per week for the railway guard, engine drive and fireman – meals and bedding.
The hotel was delicenced in 1913 and sold to W.J. Stoneman in 1914, where after re-building, it was turned into a store.
2023
The hotel is no longer. The site is currently the home of Subway Castlemaine and prior to that was the site of a Stock and Poultry Store. Information and original image kindly supplied by our friends at Castlemaine Historical Society – Exploring Our Past. You can visit their headquarters at the Former Court House in Goldsmith Cresent Castlemaine on Tuesdays between 10am and 3pm for assistance to research your own family history.