Palace Hotel, Kalgoorlie

The Palace Hotel is one of a group of heritage hotels on Hannan Street in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

Palace Hotel
General information
TypeHotel
Architectural styleFederation architecture
LocationCorner of Hannan and Maritana Streets
Address137 Hannan Street
Town or cityKalgoorlie, Western Australia
Coordinates30.7464°S 121.4743°E / -30.7464; 121.4743
OpenedDecember 1897
Technical details
Floor count2
Design and construction
Architecture firmPorter & Thomas
Website
palacehotelkalgoorlie.com

Location

The hotel is located on the corner of Hannan and Maritana Streets.[1][2][3]

It is across the road from the Exchange Hotel, another heritage hotel.

History

The hotel was constructed with ashlar stones in 1897 for Harry Rosenthal, who previously managed the Cleopatra Hotel in Fremantle.[1][4] It cost £17,000 to build.[3]

The hotel opened in December 1897, with forty-four bedrooms.[1] It was designed in the Federation architectural style by the firm Porter & Thomas, and meant to be the most luxurious hotel in Western Australia outside Perth.[3][4] The furniture came from Melbourne.[2][3][4] It became the first hotel in Kalgoorlie to have electric lighting, with its own generator, and fresh water in all bathrooms coming directly from its own condensers.[2][3][4]

In the year after its completion regular and repeated newspaper articles and photographs were used to praise the hotel and its presentation.[5][6][7][8]

A 1904 fire damaged the hotel and adjacent property.[9][10]

In 1936 renovations were reported on the Hannan Street side of the building.[11]

Herbert Hoover association

Herbert Hoover (later the US president from 1929 to 1933) visited the hotel regularly when he was working as a mining engineer in Kalgoorlie.[2][4][12] He was twenty-two at the time.[4] During his stay, he reportedly fell in love with a barmaid, and wrote her a poem.[12] An excerpt from the poem can be seen in the foyer.[12] It reads:

Do you ever dream, my sweetheart, of a twilight long ago,
Of a park in old Kalgoorlie, where the bougainvilleas grow?
Where the moonbeams on the pathways trace a shimmering brocade,
And the overhanging peppers form a lover's promenade?
Where in soft cascades of cadence from a garden close at hand,
Came the murmurous, mellow music of a sweet orchestral band.
Years have flown since then, my sweetheart, fleet as orchid blooms in May.
But the hour that fills my dreaming, was it only yesterday...

Before he left for China, Hoover left a mirror as a gift to the hotel.[4] The Hoover Mirror can still be seen in the foyer, next to his poem.[4][12] Hoover's Cafe and Lounge Bar in the hotel is also named in his honour.[13]

Later history

The 60th anniversary of the hotel was celebrated with style in 1957.[14]

The hotel has been regularly associated with the Diggers & Dealers conferences.[15][16]

Reference point

The hotel and its location on the corner of Hannan Street has been captured in photographs of Hannan Street[17] over time as well as at significant historical events.[18][19][20]

Heritage value

The hotel has been listed on the State Heritage Register since 1997.[3]

References
  1. "The Palace Hotel: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia". Western Mail. 10 December 1897. p. 48.
  2. Susie Ashworth, Rebecca Turner, Simone Egger (2004). Western Australia. p. 147.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  3. Register of Historic Places. (Number: 03797) Palace Hotel Heritage Council of Western Australia. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  4. The Palace Hotel: The History
  5. "THE PALACE HOTEL". Western Mail. Perth: National Library of Australia. 10 December 1897. p. 160 Edition: CHRISTMAS. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  6. "THE PALACE HOTEL". Kalgoorlie Western Argus. WA: National Library of Australia. 6 October 1898. p. 18. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  7. "THE PALACE HOTEL, KALGOORLIE". Kalgoorlie Western Argus. WA: National Library of Australia. 20 October 1898. p. 3. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  8. "THE PALACE HOTEL, KALGOORLIE". Kalgoorlie Western Argus. WA: National Library of Australia. 29 September 1898. p. 12. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  9. "LARGE FIRE IN KALGOORLIE". The Chronicle. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 21 September 1901. p. 15. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  10. "EXTENSIVE FIRE AT KALGOORLIE". The West Australian. Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 14 September 1901. p. 6. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  11. "Palace Hotel's Transformation". The Daily News. Perth: National Library of Australia. 22 August 1936. p. 13 Edition: GOLDFIELDS EDITION. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  12. Palace Hotel: The Hoover Mirror
  13. Palace Hotel: Hoover's Cafe and Lounge Bar
  14. 60th anniversary, 1897-1957, Palace Hotel, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, s.n., 1957, retrieved 30 May 2014
  15. Diggers & dealers 1997 : gold mining forum, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, 28-30 July 1997, The Palace Hotel, 1997, retrieved 30 May 2014
  16. "Kalgoorlie swamped for annual miners' bash. (Business)", The Age: 9, 2 August 2010, ISSN 0312-6307
  17. Western Australia. Government Photographer, Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie, looking west [picture], retrieved 30 May 2014
  18. Photographs Trans-Australian Railway photograph 4 outside Palace Hotel Kalgoorlie turning of the first sod- copy number 1. Scene at the ceremony of the turning of the first sod at Kalgoolie on 12 February 1913. Ceremony was performed by the then Prime Minister. the Rt.Hon. Andrew Fisher. (First sod was turned at Port Augusta on 14th Sept 1912 by his Excellency the Governor General, Lord Denman), 1913, retrieved 30 May 2014
  19. HRRC (1898), Mass meeting of alluvial miners, Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie March 12, 1898 [picture], retrieved 30 May 2014
  20. Crowd in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie, ca. 1905 [picture], 1905, retrieved 30 May 2014
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