When I first moved to Williamstown 20 years ago, I was intrigued by the aqua blue building in Stevedore street. I did read up on it, back then. However, now that it’s no longer aqua (the paint was removed as part of a renovation a few years ago), I was about to ask if anyone had any photos showing it with it’s former blue coat.
Then, by accident, today I found a photo I’d taken – on my phone – in May 2008. And yep, it shows it halfway through the renovation! Now, phone-cameras back then were still a bit primitive, but I’ve cleaned up the image a little bit and here it is:
Some quick comments, followed by more formal information:
- I assume the Carlton Ale sign was a pleasant surprise! It seems the (water? steam? sand?) blasting technique used was gentle enough to leave the sign image alone.
- Not sure if the deeper aqua blocks (e.g. above and left of the “C”) are a result of the cleaning – displaced paint flowing down – or are the original colour. Or maybe faded less. Or maybe…
Location Information
Street Address: 92 Stevedore St, Williamstown.
UTM Grid Reference: GDA94 55H 314885 (E) 5808014 (N)
Google Earth image: click to enlarge
Brief History
Most of this information came from Reference [1]. For copyright reasons, I’m only giving a basic summary. Please refer to [1] for more information. As an aside, it too contains a colour image of the building taken during the ‘aqua’ period. Unless stated, all quotes come from [1]
- Built 1859/1860 out of Victorian Basalt “as two stone residences each of six rooms, for James McDonagh. By the following year it was listed as a twelve room hotel called Mac’s no doubt owing to its owner’s surname”
- Upon being sold to Catherine Miller– in 1869 – it was renamed The Alfred
- “Her publican, Patrick Francis O’Hagan, bought the hotel in 1876, retaining ownership for the next twenty years”
- “one of only three surviving pre-1860 hotels in Williamstown”
References
[1] Hobsons Bay Heritage Study Amended 2010 – Volume 3 – Heritage Precinct and Place Citations. Part 2 – Heritage Places – 92 Stevedore Street, Williamstown
My grandparents house.