Hotels/park.html
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Park Hotel
1893, 9 Parry St, cnr Ellen St, designed by Joseph Talbot Hobbs for Abraham Moise Josephson, opposite Fremantle Park — now Park House accommodation, part of the St Patrick's organisation
The image is taken from a Fremantle Society February 1994 newsletter, in which a Mrs Olds is acknowledged as the donor. With verandahs, posts, and pediments, now long gone. I'm not an architect, but I assume the verandah is supported by the posts. Let's call this balcony #1.
Library:
Fremantle Library photo #1305A taken 9 August 1980 by K. Stevens; caption: This was built in 1893 to the design of J.J. Talbot Hobbs. He also designed additions which were built in 1897.
Let's call this balcony #2. It's obviously supported by about fourteen angle brackets. I think balcony #2 in the photo was being replaced in July 1995 by balcony #3 - a new cantilevered verandah - which, before completion, fell in the street, exposing half a dozen bedrooms. If I'm wrong about these balconies, I hope someone will correct me. I may have invented balcony #3.
Photo from Fremantle Society newletter of March 1996, page 6, with this caption, possibly written by then Society President Ralph Hoare, architect.
What does Ralph Hoare mean by 'new'? Is he referring to the 'verandah' visible in the second photo above, which was in situ in 1980, or was there a new 'verandah' constructed in 1995?
The two photos following are courtesy of the Fremantle Library.
So now we're back to balcony #0. I think it's unlikely, because of its present purpose, that the former hotel will ever have its verandah and posts restored.
There were meetings of the Tennis and Bowling Clubs here in the early days because it was just across the road. The former hotel, now Park House, provides 42 rooms of accommodation for clients of St Patrick's[1]. There is no longer any kind of verandah or balcony, and that and the contrastive colours make for an incredibly ugly building, in my opinion.
Heritage Council entry
Statement of Significance
The place is a fine example of a Federation Free Classical style building, with elaborate stucco decoration above the ground floor level, that makes a significant contribution to the streetscape.
Physical Description
A two storey building, originally pointed brick with rendered detailing, originally had a double storey verandah. The original verandah was removed and replaced with an upstairs balcony, which later collapsed. The side elevation onto Ellen Street has remained. The Ellen Street facade has low relief pilasters with simple decoration, demarcating the entrances and at the corners of the building. The cornice detailing continues on the pilasters. The building has timber framed sash windows surrounded by a simple stucco architrave with a slight arch. The entrances have /had arched doorways. A moulded continuous sill detail together with the cornices give a feeling of horizontality. A deep moulded cornice delineates the floors the cornice terminates at the sill of the first floor windows. A similarly detailed cornice rises above the windows. A simply decorated parapet conceals the roof line (now tiled). The stucco and brick chimneys with corbelling are intact.
History
The Park Hotel (fmr) was established in 1893. The hotel was extended four years later to double its size and frontage to Parry St. Both were designed by J Talbot Hobbs for the owner Abraham Moise Josephson. Joseph Talbot Hobbs was a partner in the firm Hobbs, Smith and Forbes. He joined the volunteer field artillery and became a Colonel with the first contingent to sail from Perth in World War 1. He served at Gallipoli and finally commanded the Australian Corps from 1918-19. He was the Aide de Camp to the Governer-General and was knighted in 1918. He filled many public posts. The Josephson family owned the hotel for over eighty years. The Josephson family played a major role in the formation of the Jewish congregation in Fremantle. In the 1990s a portion of the façade collapsed. The building was subsequently restored under the direction of Philip McAllister Architect.
References and Links
Notes about Park Hotel in Fremantle, the newsletter of the Fremantle Society: July 1995, March 1996, July 1996, October 1996.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 29 September, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/park.html (it was last updated on 29 November, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.