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Freemasons Hotel
1903, Lot 221, South Terrace, corner of Henderson Street, licensee Nicholas Paterson—since 1986 known as the Sail and Anchor. This was the first purpose-built hotel in Fremantle, all of the others until then having pre-existed as houses, warehouses or whatever (Graham).
Tuckfield 1971:
... the Freemason's Hotel and Tavern (lot 221) on the corner of Henderson Street and South Terrace. In 1856 it was announced that Nicholas Paterson had opened a new house of entertainment under the name of the Freemason's Hotel and Tavern and the following year it was advertised for sale—comprising 7 sitting rooms, one large assembly room, 8 bedrooms, stabling for 20 horses, etc. But apparently it wasn't sold because in 1859, Nicholas Paterson still had the licence. In 1860 to 1865, W. Rummer (late of the Guildford Hotel and still later, the Stirling Arms of Guildford). In 1866 to 1875, James Herbert had the licence, but whether it was senior or junior is not known. In 1876 it said the licensee was James Herbert (owner Andrew Cornish) and it continued thus until 1885. Other licensees were Otto Wershett 1895, Algar Burrayard 1900. This place is still going strong and is one of the oldest existing hotels in Fremantle. Cornish and Paterson still kept the partnership, long after taking up land at Pinjarra.
Wikipedia:
The [present] Freemasons Hotel was constructed in 1901-1903. It replaced the hotel that was originally constructed on the site in 1856 for Nicholas Paterson [1821-72] and Anthony Cornish. In 1901, James Gallop purchased the Freemasons Hotel property and commissioned architect Frederick William Burwell to design a new hotel for the site. The construction was undertaken by William Reynolds and was carried out in stages so that the hotel could continue to trade. In the 1920s, a first floor wing was added to the western side of the hotel. In 1955, the veranda and balcony was removed and replaced with a suspended awning.
Photo probably after 1920; source unknown.
Wikipedia continues:
In 1923 the Swan Brewery purchased the hotel from William Padbury, retaining ownership of it until 1977. In April 1984, the Freemasons Hotel was sold to Brewtech Ltd who undertook a major restoration and upgrading of the hotel, converting it into Australia's first boutique pub brewery, and renaming it the Sail and Anchor in 1986. The renovations included the restoration of the veranda and balcony.
In 1990 Elders IXL purchased the Matilda Bay Brewing Company (formerly Brewtech Ltd), in a deal that valued Matilda Bay at more than A$50m, selling the hotel to the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH), a subsidiary of Woolworths Limited, who subsequently closed the micro-brewery operations at the hotel in 2010. Wikipedia.
References and Links
Top photo by Gnangarra: thanks. Advertisement (right) from the 1882 WA Almanack.
Graham, Allen 2023, Inns and Outs of Fremantle: a Social History of Fremantle and its Hotels 1829-1856, XLibris: 152, 163, 170.
James A. Herbert was the licensee of the Freemasons Hotel in 1882 (advertisement in the 1882 WA Almanack.) F.T. Pamment was the licensee in 1888. Western Mail Saturday 8 December 1888: 8. Otto Wehrstedt was the licensee in 1892. The West Australian, Wednesday 7 December 1892: 3. Alfred Court was the licensee in 1897. Western Mail, Friday 10 December 1897: 35.
William Rummer was the licensee of the Highland Laddie, Toodyay, 1852, the Two Sisters, Guildford, 1856-58, the Freemasons Hotel 1861-66, and the Stirling Arms, Guildford, 1866-70. (Welcome Walls, panel 139)
Daily News, 1903: the Freemasons' Hotel, on South terrace [has been] entirely rebuilt ... Daily News Thursday 10 September 1903, p 3.
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 20 September, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/freemasons.html (it was last updated on 5 December, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.