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Freotopia > people > James Grave. See also Osborne Hotel.
James Grave
Carter:
James Grave (described as a company agent) whose original investments were at Southern Cross and Kimberley gold fields, later [set] out as an entrepreneur in other fields. One of his commercial ventures was the establishment of the Federal Furniture Factory and in 1884 he brought out one hundred carefully selected craftsmen and cabinet makers to staff it. He was better known however, as a builder and investor in luxury and resort hotels, his most famous being the lavish Osborne resort hotel at Claremont. Grave’s hotel plans were, unfortunately for him, a little before their time and he found himself in financial difficulties, eventually being forced to file for bankruptcy. By 1901 the Osborne had been sold to the Catholic church for use as a girl’s boarding school and rechristened Loreto Convent.
Bolton & Gregory:
James Grave was a Melbourne man who, having followed his fortunes on the New Zealand goldfields in the 1870s, arrived in Perth as a thirty-year-old in 1878, married and fathered a large family, and throve as merchant. He became a close associate of Harry Anstey, the fortunate English new chum whose party found payable gold in the Yilgarn. Although they enjoyed mixed fortunes on the goldfields, Grave and Anstey did well as part of a syndicate that subdivided most of Bassendean. Anstey also took up property on the west side of Freshwater Bay—Anstey Street and Bindaring Parade commemorate him and his country estate—and he transferred the northern portion, adjoining the Perth-Fremantle Road, to Grave. In 1894 the latter set about building Perth’s finest resort hotel [the Osborne Hotel] on the commanding heights overlooking the river. Bolton & Gregory: 63.
References and Links
Bolton, Geoffrey & Jenny Gregory 1999, Claremont: A History, UWAP.
Carter, Jennie 1986, Bassendean: A Social History 1829-1979, Bassendean Town Council.
James, Ruth Marchant 1977, Heritage of Pines: A History of Cottesloe, Town of Cottesloe Council: 88-91.
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 4 August, 2019 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/gravejames.html (it was last updated on 26 February, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.