Palace Hotel, Perth facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Palace Hotel |
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| General information | |
| Status | Partially demolished |
| Location | 108 St Georges Terrace Perth, Western Australia 6000 |
| Coordinates | 31°57′16.4″S 115°51′24.4″E / 31.954556°S 115.856778°E |
| Completed | 1897 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Ernest Saunders Porter Edmond Neville Thomas |
| Type | State Registered Place |
| Designated | 12 May 2000 |
| Reference no. | 2114 |
The Palace Hotel in Perth, Western Australia, is a famous three-story building with a lot of history. It is located in the city's main business area. The hotel was first built in 1897 during the exciting gold rush time in Western Australia.
Later, in the 1980s, it was changed into offices for banks and other companies. Today, it is home to the Perth offices of Woods Bagot, Adapptor, and Hatchd. You can find this important building on a very busy corner in the city's financial district, where St Georges Terrace meets William Street.
When the Palace Hotel first opened on March 18, 1897, people said it was "one of the most beautiful and elegant hotels in Australasia." Even though it was a bit smaller than some hotels in other big cities, it was still very grand. People described it as "as fancy as any hotel in Melbourne or Sydney." It operated as a hotel from 1897 until 1981.
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The Hotel's Look and Special Features
The Palace Hotel is built in a style called "Federation Free Classical". It has three stories and is made of brick and iron. Architects Porter and Thomas designed the building. A rich mining businessman named John De Baun paid £64,000 to build it. That was a huge amount of money back then!
Protecting a Piece of History
In 1973, a group of people called The Palace Guards formed to help save the building. They wanted the government to protect it. With help from a special protest by workers called a green ban, the building was added to the list of important places by the National Trust of Australia in June 1973. It became a permanent protected site in 1980. People called it "a top example of how well buildings were made during the gold rush."
Before and during the changes in the 1980s, The Palace Guards and other groups worked hard to keep parts of the original building safe. In 1990, new laws were made to protect old buildings. The Palace Hotel was the first place in Western Australia to get a special heritage agreement. In May 2000, it was officially listed as a permanent entry on the state heritage register.
Why the Hotel is Important
The Palace Hotel has always been a key landmark in Perth. This is because of its fancy and grand look, its important spot in the city, and because it was the only building of its kind on St Georges Terrace. In its early days, the hotel offered travelers a very luxurious and comfortable place to stay. It showed how rich and successful Western Australia was during the gold boom.
Before the Perth Town Hall was built in 1870, the land where the hotel stands was a major social and political meeting spot. Important decisions, like starting a local police force in 1851, were made there. When the hotel was changed into bank offices in the 1980s, many people in Perth felt a lot of nostalgia. They remembered how important the hotel was to the city.
A Look Back at the Hotel's Past
The land where the Palace Hotel stands has been used for lodging for a very long time. The King's Head Hotel was there from at least 1830. In 1831, William Dixon sold it to William Henry Leeder. It then became known as Leeder's Hotel. This hotel became a social hub for the town. Many important dinners and parties happened there.
In 1845, Leeder's Hotel was made bigger. By then, it was called the Freemasons' Tavern. It was also home to the first Masonic Lodge in Western Australia. After Leeder passed away in 1845, his wife gave the management to Julian Carr. He was a merchant who later became a well-known local politician. He was also the Chairman of the Perth City Council from 1861 to 1869.
The hotel was then known as the Freemasons' Hotel. Many different people ran it over the years. These included the wife of future Premier Sir Walter James and George Towton, a famous horseman and hotel owner.
Building the Grand Palace Hotel
In 1888, a fire at the back of the hotel damaged some smaller buildings. The whole place was starting to look old and run down. In 1894, an American real estate investor named John De Baun bought the property for £14,000. He also bought other sites along St Georges Terrace.
De Baun hired architects Ernest Saunders Porter and Edmond Neville Thomas to design the new Palace Hotel. He wanted it to be very grand and spared no expense. Many building materials were brought in from other countries. Marble for the fireplaces and mosaic floor tiles for the main entrance came from Italy. The hotel was very modern for its time. It had "electric light and gas in every room." It also had electric bells and speaking tubes "conveniently placed everywhere." People said it had the first lift in Perth. It also had 10 bathrooms for the 50 bedrooms on the first floor. De Baun also started building the nearby Melbourne Hotel in 1895. It was similar in style, but not quite as grand as the Palace Hotel.
John Glowrey, a member of parliament, leased the Palace Hotel from De Baun in 1901. He made the first of many changes to the building. He added more bedrooms on the north and east sides. A newspaper ad from 1903 proudly said:
- ...the hotel is the finest hotel in the State.
- It has 130 bedrooms and many private suites.
- It has a writing room and a library.
- There is a fine dining hall and a grand entrance.
- It has electric light and an electric elevator.
- There are also large sample rooms.
De Baun passed away in 1911. The West Australian Trustee Executor and Agency Company Limited took over ownership. However, Glowrey's lease continued until he died in 1921. Charles Atkins bought the property in 1924 for £48,000.
James Henry Glowrey, a younger relative of the previous leaseholder, took over the lease in 1930. At the same time, major inside renovations costing £15,000 were done. This included making the bar areas bigger. The basement billiard room was changed into a new bar. Outside renovations were done in 1935 and 1939. In 1959, a big modernization project started. It cost £160,000. This included adding air conditioning and private bathrooms. The old wooden verandas were replaced with new concrete ones. Before this update, the hotel's old name, De Baun's Palace Hotel, was carved above the front entrance.
Changes in the 1980s
The Commonwealth Banking Corporation bought the property around 1972. They announced plans to build tall office buildings on the site. Soon after, a public campaign began. The group called The Palace Guards became a strong voice. They worked with the state government and heritage groups to save the building. The group's first meeting was held at the Hotel on March 27, 1973.
J.M. Freeland, a professor of architecture, wrote at the time: "This is a very important building for Australian architecture. It is a great example of fancy Victorian architecture. There were not many hotels like it in Australia, and I believe this is the last one."
The campaign against tearing down the hotel grew stronger. The National Estates Committee spoke out against the plan. The bank even asked the Australian Government to buy the property. Finally, Bond Corporation bought the property and the nearby Terrace Arcade in 1978. In 1980, they showed their plans for a modern office block. These plans included tearing down parts of the old hotel and nearby buildings. The developers had already gotten permission to use the Palace Hotel as a bank, instead of keeping it as a public hotel.
The plans for the new building were described in the Trust News journal:
- A tall, multi-use tower block would be built on the northeast corner of the site.
- The Palace Hotel structure on the southwest corner would be kept.
- A covered walkway would be built between the two buildings, connecting William Street with St George’s Terrace.
- This would mean tearing down the Terrace Arcade building.
- It would also mean tearing down the eastern part of the hotel's accommodation wing.
- The northern part of the William Street side would be taken apart and rebuilt.
- The dining room would also be taken apart and rebuilt.
Bond Corporation and the R&I Bank worked together on the tower project and restoring the hotel. Demolition work started in August 1981. The hotel closed in June 1986 during the demolition and construction. By August 1983, the tower's foundation and three levels of underground parking were finished. The whole project was completed in 1988. The Premier, Peter Dowding, officially opened it in August 1989.
The changes meant that much of the inside walls of the old hotel were removed. However, the outside walls facing the two main streets are mostly still there. The William Street side is a bit shorter. A glass-covered area now connects the tower to the old hotel. This means the tower entrances also provide covered access to the building.
