The history of hotels in Orange is one of constant change but one of the few to retain its looks and style for more than a century has been the Gladstone Hotel.
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The pub’s quaint village looks date back to about 1865 when it was built as the Globe Hotel before gaining its current name a few years later.
Orange and District Historical Society historian Ross Maroney said while the pub on the corner of Byng and Hill streets is now out of the centre of the town it wasn’t always that way.
Mr Maroney said that in the early days of Orange Summer Street was not the main thoroughfare.
“When it [Orange] started the street plan for it had been prepared but it hadn’t been built on,” he said.
“People would come down the Bathurst Road into Orange, there was no railway line in those days, and they’d come to the swamp area [now Robertson Park].
“They would head diagonally across town when they were going to Molong and Wellington.
“There was a string of hotels [including the Gladstone] heading over towards Greengate.”
There was a string of hotels [including the Gladstone] heading over towards Greengate.
- Ross Maroney, historian
Mr Maroney said Byng Street became the de facto main street with several major buildings constructed.
He said the Greengate area was effectively the north-western edge of Orange in the 1860s.
Things changed with the development of the Dalton store in Summer Street and this triggered more development around it.
Tooth’s Brewery inspectors visited the Gladstone from the 1920s through to the 1970s according to official cards that are now part of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University collection which has been made public.
The inspectors recorded details of the location and condition of the hotel, itemised the takings, listed the licencee’s name and commented on the venue for brewery records.
In 1936 it quoted a report in the Orange Leader newspaper that the pub was to be repaired and have two bedrooms added.
In 1963 the inspector noted renovations to provide new roofing and toilets and a facelift had cost 7000 pounds.
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