Arthur River Precinct

Child Places

• 23462 Arthur River Hall
• 23904 Mount Pleasant Inn Kitchen
• 23876 Arthur River Hall
• 23812 Arthur River Post Office
• 02698 St Paul's Anglican Church, Graveyard & Sandalwood Trees

Values

• The inn kitchen is a good example of a building with Flemish bond brickwork in the Victorian Georgian style.
• The post office building has aesthetic value as a simple, brick single storey one-roomed building with a verandah to the street frontage.
• Together, the inn kitchen and the post office form a small group of buildings with similar materials and located in a picturesque setting, thus creating a landmark on Albany Highway within the townsite.
• The place has associations with the development of the town site dating from the 1860s.
• The inn kitchen building was formed part of an inn built by well-known Arthur area businessman James Spratt.
• The inn kitchen has associations with one of the earliest inns constructed along the Albany Highway and is one of the earliest still extant buildings in the Shire.

Physical Description

The place comprises the inn kitchen building and a small shop/post office building to the street frontage. The former inn is a single storey brick building laid in the Flemish bond style. It has a hipped shingle roof. There is evidence of whitewash on the face brick. The place has a symmetrical frontage and a lean-to to one side. The shop is a single storey brick building with a hipped CGI clad roof and a skillion verandah to front/street. It consists of one room.

History

Inn kitchen: James Spratt built the inn in 1869. The location was originally known as 125 mile, but later became Mt Pleasant after a nearby property. The place became an important meeting place for locals and was a resting spot for those travelling through the area. Spratt went on to construct the Wagin Hotel in Wagin subsequent to the opening of the railway in 1889. The inn changed hands at about this time and was eventually delicensed in the 1920s and became a boarding the house. In the 1930s, the inn was demolished and the stones used for construction of a new house nearby. All that remained of the hotel precinct was the kitchen. The exact date of construction of the kitchen is not known but its architectural styled lends itself to the first campaign of construction of the inn in 1869. The Arthur River Restoration Society was granted the land and work commenced on the restoration of the former kitchen. As part of the works, the north and west walls were rebuilt by Herman Does of Dumbleyung. In 1988, with the help of grants form the Heritage Commission, a new shingle roof was installed by Tom Birt of Busselton. Post Office: The first postmistress of the 125 Mile was Miss Mary Ann Spratt. The original post office is said to have operated from rooms in the inn. Not mush is known about the actual construction of the place; however, it is likely that a permanent building was erected after a telegraph subscriber service was extended to Arthur River in 1913. (It is said to have been built on the site of a bootmakers shop built in 1904.) During World War Two, the function was relocated to the store on the opposite side of the highway. In the 1980s restoration work was undertaken to the property.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity- Moderate Authenticity- High

Condition

Sound

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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