Mount Martha Hotel (former), 466-473 Esplanade, Mount Martha, VIC | Photographs: | None | | List: | Register of the National Estate | | Class: | Historic | | Legal Status: | Indicative Place | | Place ID: | 103194 | | Place File No: | 2/18/037/0033 | | Nominator`s Statement of Significance: | The Mount Martha Hotel is significant within the State as an externally near complete ornamental 19th century timber seaside hotel in a style which preceded Edwardian residential styles (Queen Anne revival) and reflected its bushland location. It parallels other picturesque timber hotels in mountain resorts such as at Mount Macedon and Healesville but is distinguished as a vital part in an ambitious and innovatory model seaside estate which used the best design talents in the State for its planning and building design.
Subsequently it has played a long public building role in the peninsula as both a guest and hotel and is one of the few built reminders of the AIF and American armed forces occupation of Mount Martha during World War Two. | | Official Values: Not Available | | Description: | HISTORY:
This former coffee palace was erected on a five acre site for he Mount Martha Estate Company by 1890. It was shown in the estate brochures, set to the north of Watson`s villa (Melrose) and at the north-western tip of an extensive bayside residential subdivision which went as far as Bay Road on the north, the Nepean Highway on the east, and Park Road on the south. Designed in an organic layout by Allan & Tuxen Bros., the estate layout was distinctive and reminiscent of the later Ranelagh estate, Mount Eliza. The Mount Martha Hotel is shown in a photograph at the north end of part of the Esplanade, captioned `Esplanade Drive. Two Miles Long...` which then appeared to halt at Bay Road.
The hotel design was by the noted architects, Tappin Gilbert & Dennehy who called tenders for a wooden hotel at Mount Martha in 1889 and who later designed Byron Moore`s house, The Chalet as the firm of Reed Smart & Tappin-. The competition conducted by the company in 1891 for model houses for the estate was judged by the architect GG Inskip and won by Allan C Walker, showing the commitment to good design on the estate for public and private buildings.
The Mt Martha coffee palace was a `commodious structure in the cottage style rectangular in shape and enclosing a large open square and giving accommodation for nearly 100 guests` and a guest house more than a hotel, its cottage design well-suited to the rural landscape of Mt Martha.
The building had several features to commend it, including a design that ensured light and shade in every room, and which projected `noisy rooms `, such as the drawing room, kitchen and billiards room, at right angles to the main house so that guests would not be disturbed.
In 1890 the Mt Martha Hotel provided playrooms for children, including a covered asphalt space. The parlours of the hotel were `fitted up in cool and dainty muslins and natural woods, and broken into charming nooks and corners by Moresque arches and pillars`.
The hotel was operated in 1893 by a Miss Buckley . The `Victorian Post Office Directory` of the early 1890s lists Miss Johanna Buckley at the Main Point Hotel, South Melbourne and Rebecca Buckley a Bairnsdale boarding house keeper and possibly the former was the keeper at Mount Martha.
Madame Elsie Etzenberger (or Epsenberger) who also lived in Granite Cottage also once owned and ran the Mount Martha hotel from c1900, replacing William Detmould as the licensee and Sir Malcolm McEachern, as the rated owner. Previously she had been in charge of Gracedale House, Healesville. When the First War broke out her German (Austrian) origin may have inspired her to shift house.
After that, Mrs Annie Ferrero operated the Mount Martha Hotel (Arino, Glen and Tweedy? Ferrero) where she was assisted in her later years by a New Zealander, William Birdling (1920s). The Mt Martha Hotel continued to function as a guest house until World War Two and the arrival of the AIF in Mount Martha.
The army`s `occupation` of Mt Martha was not confined to the Balcombe site. Wives of Australian servicemen, for instance, were accommodated at `Grandview`, a Mt Martha guest house and Mt Martha House was also occupied. After the arrival of US troops in the Pacific, Balcombe Camp was used as a rehabilitation centre for them. Camp Manyung, at Mt Eliza, was also used for such a purpose. The Army purchased the Mount Martha Guest House and 2.03ha in 1951 which became No.30 W.R.A.A.C. Barrack for the next twenty years.
The Shire of Mornington purchased the building, then the former WRAAC Barracks, in 1978 and advertised for expressions of interest by community groups. One response was from the Mount Martha Bowls Club who thought that part of the site would be an admirable location for a bowls club, involving the building of a club house and new rinks.
The Shire`s proposed development plan showed two rinks built on the garden next to two tennis courts, the removal of garages and store sheds and the construction of a 69 car carpark. The Shire however had a better site for the club in Watson Road and the club was content with access to meeting rooms prior to the erection of their clubhouse . Other interested groups included the Red Cross, the junior football club, rotary, the homing club, tennis club, cricketers and the Anglican church as a service centre. Many others applied.
The plaque commemorating the opening of the centre in July 1979 stated:
`...This building was erected in 1901 (sic) as a hotel/guest house. During the period 1939-1976 it was used a an army establishment (WRAAC Barrack) and was purchased by the Mornington Shire in 1978..`
The two large wells reputedly at the rear have since been filled in (or overgrown) being in the yard of a house built c1955. The spring to the south has since dried up but was once a good source despite the location of the Mount Martha House men`s toilets nearly on its banks. Alan Dowdle recalls that, as with the Mornington Royal Hotel, a windmill was erected near the beach opposite the former store site and near the carpark, to supplement the water supply to Mount Martha House during the Ferrero occupation. The water was found to be too brackish . This is shown in the estate brochure published in 1891.
Mt Martha remained, until very recent times, a seaside resort, relying on Mornington for community and commercial facilities. A focal point, referred to in tourist brochures from the end of last century until the middle of this century, was Mt Martha House, but it was a focal point for travellers, a place where the coach stopped and the telegraph was connected, and not a community centre.
DESCRIPION:
This former coffee palace was designed in a typically picturesque timber style for the then relatively remote resort. The gables and ornamental fretted detailing suggest the type of Swiss chalet architecture also seen at retreats like Mount Macedon. It also resembles the prize-winning designs for houses on the Mount Martha estate illustrated in building journals of the 1890s.
Unlike contemporary summer hotels such as the picturesque Braemar House, on Mount Macedon, this building was part of an ambitious and large residential estate which was to be unmatched in concept (in terms of building large public facilities as well as providing the land) in a Victorian seaside estate until Griffin`s Ranelagh, sold c1924.
Set on an E-plan, the weatherboarded building has two projecting wings, reputedly to house noisy activities like billiards, and a central gabled entry porch attached to the front verandah. Brick, squat chimneys have grouped shafts, in the Elizabethan manner, while the timber gable details resemble European Medieval domestic precedents.
The window openings have been altered but otherwise only details have changed to the exterior as viewed from the Esplanade. There is a garden of remnant trees, golden cypress, Monterey pines and cypress, which probably date from this century. | | History: Not Available | | Condition and Integrity: | | Externally, the main window openings of the projecting gabled wings once had mullions and casements (with toplights) and intricate coloured leaded glazing while window hoods have been added early this century in a related manner. Some new but matching openings have been made in the front walls and the arched chimney pieces on the north and south wings have been truncated to form two stacks. Another southern chimney has been removed. Some slatted balustrading has also been removed but otherwise the main external decorative detailing and form have been retained. | | Location: | | 466-473 Esplanade, and Dominion Road, Kilburn Grove and Elmie Terrace, Mount Martha. | | Bibliography: Not Available |
Report Produced: Thu Feb 1 22:09:50 2007 |
