Bush, Henrietta (nee Lewis)

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NameBush, Henrietta (nee Lewis)Date of Birth1878 Last edited by: June Hockey

Date of Death1959OccupationHotelierPlace of ResidenceShellharbour Village BiographyHenrietta Lewis was born in Cumberland England in 1878 to Henry and Marianne Lewis.

Henry and his family (Henrietta had 2 brothers William and Archer) came to Australia, arriving in Sydney in June 1885 on the ship Bombay. Henry was a joiner (carpenter).

The family were living in Walcha N.S.W. and Henrietta attended Misses Adams' Ladies School.

While working as a nurse in the Fiji Islands, Henrietta Lewis married Captain Edward Puttnam. Edward was a sea captain who seems to have begun his apprenticeship in 1880 when he was 16 years old. Sadly, Edward died of a heart attack in 1898 when their daughter Alice was just three weeks old.

Henrietta decided to return to Australia on the Ship Ovalau arriving in Sydney on the 28th of May 1898 and continued her nursing career.

The electoral rolls for 1903-4 Henrietta Puttnam is living in the Petersham district and her occupation was a nurse and in 1913 electoral rolls she is Henrietta Bush, and occupation is domestic duties.

In 1906, Henrietta married Walter Bush, a shopkeeper & hotelier from Sydney, and they had a son Harry, who was born in 1911 registered in Marrickville , Sydney.

Walter and Henrietta owned hotels in Sydney, Inverell, and Kiama.

Tragedy struck once again and a short time after their marriage, Henrietta lost her second husband in 1916. After his death, she decided to build a hotel herself, in Shellharbour.

'The Ocean Beach Hotel' was built by Lewis (Henrietta’s brother Henry Lewis) and Tyler for Henrietta Bush in 1929, and was advertised as a new tourist hotel, ‘an ornament to Shellharbour and South Coast. Facing the drift way with one of the oldest titles in respect of a grant stands the beautiful new building that will certainly place Shellharbour on the map in a tourist sense and gain for it appreciation of one of the prettiest spots on the coast’. (Kiama Independent 4 October 1930).

The new hotel could accommodate 60 guests and was built to cater to the tourist trade. The rooms were described as both artistic and modern while the tiled and marble bathrooms had hot and cold reticulated water with the latest in showers and fittings. The stained glass windows of the dining room opened to a tiled verandah complete with afternoon tea tables decorated in gold and black.
Henrietta died in 1959.

'The Ocean Beach Hotel' still stands today, providing patrons with beautiful views over the little harbour at the Village. It has served the Shellharbour Village community for over 80 years

Henrietta and Edward Puttnam had one child Alice, born in 1898 in Fiji. She married Charles Clinton Cullen in 1917.

Henrietta and Walter Bush had one child Harry, born 1911 in Marrickville, Sydney. He married Hazel Marks in 1938.

External LinkMinnie Hare 1895Sad Death Captain Puttnam 1898Henrietta Puttnam Nursing 1902Mrs Bush Grand Hotel Kiama 1917Empire Hotel Sold 1922Late Mr Henry Lewis 1924Obituary Mrs Marianne Lewis 76 Years 1928Shellharbour Seaside Flats 1929New Buildings 1929New Hotel 1929Kiosk Kiama 1930New Tourist Hotel 1930 Last edited by: June Hockey

Big Fire at Shellharbour 1931 Last edited by: June Hockey

Hotel Open on Holidays 1949