Barron Valley Hotel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Barron Valley Hotel |
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Barron Valley Hotel
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| Location | 53 Main Street, Atherton, Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Design period | 1939 - 1945 (World War II) |
| Built | 1940-1941 |
| Architect | Hill & Taylor |
| Architectural style(s) | Art Deco |
| Official name: Barron Valley Hotel | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 5 February 2010 |
| Reference no. | 602587 |
| Significant period | 1940s onwards |
| Significant components | bar, hotel / inn, shop/s |
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The Barron Valley Hotel is a special historic hotel located at 53 Main Street in Atherton, Australia. It was designed by the architects Hill & Taylor and built between 1940 and 1941. This hotel is so important that it was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2010. This means it's a protected building because of its history and unique design.
Contents
A Look Back: The Hotel's History
The Barron Valley Hotel was built in 1940-1941 on Atherton's main street. But did you know a hotel has been on this spot since 1890? Hotels like this were super important for new towns growing in regional areas. The current hotel has cool, old-fashioned designs inside. The Nasser family has owned and run it for over 70 years!
How Atherton Began
Atherton is in a place called the Atherton Tablelands. Early European settlers came here by following routes from Port Douglas to Herberton. The town is named after a farmer, John Atherton. It was first called Prior's Pocket after Thomas Prior, who was the first European to live there permanently. The town grew as people came to cut down trees for timber. This timber was used to build many of Atherton's first buildings.
The town was officially mapped out in 1885. The first land lots were sold in Atherton in 1886. By the mid-1890s, Atherton became a very popular and important town on the Tablelands.
The Hotel's Early Days
In its early days, Atherton was a stop for Cobb and Co Coaches. These were like old-fashioned buses that carried people and mail. The coaches would stop at the Barron Valley Hotel on their way between Herberton and Port Douglas. Atherton also provided food and supplies for the nearby mining towns. The town became even more important when the railway from Cairns arrived in 1903. The railway was built behind the Barron Valley Hotel and eventually replaced the Cobb and Co. coach routes.
The very first Barron Valley Hotel was a small shack built in the 1890s by Thomas Peake. Soon, a single-storey hotel replaced it. This hotel was also a Cobb & Co. stop and a general store. Then, in 1907-1908, a new two-storey timber hotel was built. It became a central meeting place in Atherton. Mr. McCraw was the first person to run this third hotel, and it became known as McCraw's Barron Valley Hotel.
The Nasser Family Takes Over
Sconder (Alexander) Nasser, who came from Lebanon, bought the hotel in 1930. Many Lebanese families settled in North Queensland around this time. Sconder and his wife Amelia Moses, whose family was also from Lebanon and lived in Atherton, had worked in other parts of Queensland. Before buying the hotel, Sconder had even run Atherton's first taxi service and a barber shop!
In the late 1930s, Sconder decided to build an even bigger and better hotel. He hired famous architects Richard Hill and AJH Taylor from Cairns to design it. Hill & Taylor designed many important buildings in North Queensland between the two World Wars. Because of its connection to these architects and its special interior design, the hotel was recognized as an important example of 20th-century Queensland architecture.
The new Barron Valley Hotel was a two-storey brick building. It had 30 bedrooms, a billiards room, two bars, and a lounge and dining room. These rooms had special folding doors that could open up to create one big dance hall for up to 250 dancers! There was also a barber's shop that opened directly onto the street. The hotel officially opened with a big dance on July 12, 1941. People said the inside was "dignified and up-to-date" with cream and gold walls and shiny timber floors.
The Hotel During World War II
In 1942, during World War II, the Australian Army needed places to train and help soldiers recover. General Sir Thomas Blamey, the leader of the Australian Military Forces, decided the Atherton Tablelands would be a good base. The area was close to the battlefields in New Guinea. Its cooler climate also helped sick and wounded soldiers feel better than the hot coast.
Many buildings in Atherton were used by both Australian and American soldiers. The Barron Valley Hotel was taken over by the Australian Army for about two and a half years. It became an officers' club, a dining hall, and a place for officers to stay. For a few months, General Blamey himself even used the hotel as his base before moving to Port Moresby.
The Hotel Today
In 1945, Sconder's son Harold returned from the war and started running the hotel. He retired in 1990, and the next generation of the family took over. In 2009, Harold's son Michael and his wife Maree were still running the hotel. Michael's other son, David, runs the bottle shop next door. Between 2002 and 2007, Michael oversaw a big renovation of the hotel. They replaced the roof, added wheelchair access, updated bathrooms and the kitchen, and restored old furniture.
The Barron Valley Hotel has always been important for people visiting the Tablelands, including business people, tourists, and important guests like Queensland governors. Its dining room and lounge have often been used for meetings and social events. The hotel owners have also supported local sports clubs and community groups for many years.
What the Hotel Looks Like
The Barron Valley Hotel is a large, two-storey building made of brick and concrete. It has a metal roof. It's right in the middle of Atherton's main street, on the Kennedy Highway. The hotel's land goes all the way back to Railway Lane, which is next to the Cairns Railway line.
The hotel is shaped like a rectangle, with four sections built around a central courtyard. Each section has an enclosed verandah on the outside and an open verandah on the inside on both levels. The outer walls have Parapets (low walls) that hide the main roof from view.
The front of the hotel, facing Main Street, has a verandah that hangs over the footpath. It's supported by brick pillars. Above a solid brick railing, you can see three diamond patterns made of bricks. There are also many windows between the brick pillars. The verandah roof has multiple slopes. The brick parapet at the top has a decorative band and a stepped brick design in the middle.
The walls at the back and sides of the hotel are made of a concrete frame with dark brown bricks. The verandahs have windows, some old timber ones and some newer sliding aluminum ones. The northern corner at the back of the hotel sticks out a bit and has a fancy decorative top.
At street level, the front of the hotel has black tiles at the bottom and thin bands of cream tiles separating green wall tiles. The main entrance is set back a bit and is tiled up to the door height. Above the entrance doors, a sign with shiny trim shows the hotel's name in big, stylish letters. The underside of the verandah has a flat ceiling decorated with a cool pattern of timber strips.
Inside the Hotel
When you walk into the main entrance, you enter the foyer. It has a beautiful plaster ceiling, shiny timber floors, and wooden walls and counters with special timber designs. There's also a main staircase, a reception area, and old furniture. The public bar, a smaller private bar, and the main lounge all open off the foyer.
The public bar has two doors from Main Street. It features cream-colored tiled walls with black tile details that match the timber in the foyer. It also has an old terrazzo floor and bar. Next to the public bar, a hallway from the street leads to the public bar, the central courtyard, and another shop. A pharmacy now occupies a large part of the ground floor where the billiards room used to be. In one corner, there's a small, old barber's shop with its original shopfront and fittings.
In another part of the hotel, the lounge opens from the entrance foyer through wooden doors. It's separated from the dining room by special leadlight bi-fold doors. The lounge has a fireplace, and both the lounge and dining rooms have shiny timber floors and decorative plaster ceilings. Both rooms also have doors that open onto the outside and inside verandahs. Next to the dining room is a private dining room and the hotel kitchen.
The central courtyard is used as an outdoor lounge and dining area. It has shade sails supported by a new veranda. A passageway behind the pharmacy provides outside access to the courtyard.
Upstairs Accommodation
The upper level of the hotel has about 30 bedrooms for guests. You can get to this level from the main entrance foyer, or by other stairs in the courtyard and on the outside verandah. Each section of the building has a central hallway with bedrooms on either side. These bedrooms have access to either the inside or outside verandahs. There's also a sun deck built in the courtyard area. There are four shared bathrooms, and some bedrooms have been changed to have their own bathrooms. In one section, there's a larger room for families and a shared lounge. The hallways have plastered walls and shiny timber floors. One of the bathrooms upstairs still has its original tiles and fixtures.
The large enclosed verandah that extends over the footpath has recreation areas and a meeting room. The ceiling here is lined with flat sheets and decorated with timber strips in a stylish pattern.
Behind the hotel, facing Railway Lane, there's a separate bottle shop. This was added later and is not considered part of the hotel's original historic importance.
Why It's a Heritage Site
The Barron Valley Hotel was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on February 5, 2010, because it meets several important rules.
Showing Queensland's History
The Barron Valley Hotel in Atherton is a very important building. It was built in 1940-1941 and is the fourth hotel on this site since 1890. It's one of three large, well-preserved hotels in the Tablelands that helped the region grow. The hotel has provided a place to stay for visitors, important people, and tourists. It has also been a popular meeting spot and a place for social events in Atherton since the 1940s.
The hotel is also important because of its connection to World War II. From 1942 to 1944, it was used by the Australian Army as an officers' club, dining hall, and accommodation. General Sir Thomas Blamey, a very important military leader, even stayed there for a short time.
The hotel was built for Sconder Nasser in 1940-1941. He bought the previous hotel in 1930. The Nasser family still owns and runs the hotel today. This shows how Lebanese immigrants have helped develop regional Queensland.
Unique Design and Features
The Barron Valley Hotel is special among Queensland hotels from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Its layout is still mostly original, and its interior is in great condition. It uses many decorative designs and materials that were popular at the time it was built. The main entrance foyer and staircase are especially beautiful, with lots of local North Queensland timbers used in their smooth, modern designs, fittings, and old furniture.
The hotel is a great example of a large "Art Deco" style hotel from the late 1930s/early 1940s in a regional town. It still has:
- Its original shape and purpose.
- Its original look from the street.
- Its original layout with bedrooms upstairs and public areas downstairs (like the entrance, lounge, dining room, public bar, private bar, and the old billiards room, which is now a pharmacy). It also still has the barber's shop that opens to the street.
- Many of its original finishes and fittings, including:
- The timber work (main stairs, wall panels, cabinets, windows, and doors) made from local North Queensland timbers.
- Shiny timber floors.
- Decorative timber strips on the ceilings.
- Leadlight glass.
- Tiles and terrazzo work.
- Plaster and stucco decorations.
- A tiled fireplace surround in the dining room/lounge.
- Its original signs.
- Original furniture made specifically for the hotel from local North Queensland timbers, like the dining room chairs and club chairs in the foyer.
The hotel also shows the important work of the famous Cairns architectural firm R Hill and AJH Taylor. They designed many important buildings in far North Queensland between the two World Wars.
