The New Royal Hotel

DESCRIPTION

NameThe New Royal HotelTypeBuildingHotelDescriptionIn 1872, Robert Martin’s Settlers Arms Hotel burnt down. The vacant site was purchased by Henry Frederick Mood, Coachbuilder and Alderman of Shellharbour, who built the ‘New Royal Hotel’ in 1891.

The ‘New Royal Hotel’ was built of weatherboards and was two-storey's high with a corrugated iron roof. Water to the hotel was supplied from an underground tank.

The launch of GL Fuller’s coastal steamer the SS Dunmore built for the blue metal trade was celebrated at the opening of the hotel.

Various owners operated the hotel over the years and in 1926 it was purchased by Mrs. Henrietta Bush. The hotel was then known as the ‘Ocean Beach’. Mrs. Bush purchased another site near the harbour, on the corner of Addison and Wentworth Streets, and built a new hotel on that site in 1929. She transferred the license and name of the ‘Ocean Beach’ to this new site.

The ‘New Royal Hotel’, like the ‘Settlers Arms’ that came before it, was destroyed by fire in 1931.

‘The large two-storied wooden building in Shellharbour known for many years as the Ocean Beach Hotel under the direction of Mrs. Dixon, was destroyed by fire on Wednesday morning. The wind was blowing a gale at the time from the west. In a terrific roar, the flames went straight into the air and by three o’clock the building was but a heap of ashes with only the chimney standing.’ (Kiama Independent 1 August 1931)

External LinkNew Royal Hotel Shellharbour 1891Shellharbour A Pleasant Resort 1891Highway Robbery with Violence 1893Banquet and Presentation to President Kelleher 1905The New Royal Hotel 1906Hail Storm Shellharbour 1917Shellharbour Fire 1931Big Fire at Shellharbour 1931

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