Caroline Simpson Collection

Doncaster Hotel, Braidwood, around April-May 1870 / American and Australasian Photographic Company

American and Australasian Photographic Company.
Merlin, Henry Beaufoy, 1830-1873.

1870

1 carte-de-visite ; sepia ; 6.5 x 10.3 cm.

Verso carries the printed trade label of the "American and Australasian Photographic Company / Sydney Office 11 Barrack St / Melbourne Office 73 Little Collins St" and is numbered, in pencil: 11163.

hotels
balconies
billiard rooms
top hats
riding boots
Doncaster Hotel (Braidwood, N.S.W.)

This photograph of the Doncaster Hotel in Braidwood, on the corner of Park lane and Wilson Street, was probably taken in April or May 1870 when the photographer Beaufoy Merlin and his American and Australasian Photographic Company were en route to Sydney from Victoria via several country towns in New South Wales. In February 1870 he advertised in the Queanbeyan Age that he was about to photograph every house in Yass. By March he was planning to photograph every house in Queanbeyan. By late May he had photographed Braidwood and was in already in Goulburn.
The hotel, originally called the Doncaster Inn, was established by Andrew Badgery around 1840 and was for many years a popular place for political meetings, auctions and social events. After Andrew Badgery's death in 1857 his wife, Maria, became the licencee until she retired in 1865. At the time this photograph was taken the licencee was Solomon Moses, although Moses had advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald in October 1867 that he intended to retire from the business due to ill-health. The premises included "a bar-room handsomely fitted up, six parlours, and twenty-five bedrooms, neatly furnished". There was also an excellent dining-room, 2 pantries, billiard room, ballroom, lodge room and a fine row of stabling fitted out with race boxes. [SMH 19.10.1867 p.12)
The hotel was sold in the 1880s to the Roman Catholic church for the Good Samaritan nuns. It was demolished in 1905 and rebuilt as a convent using the same materials. [ref. NSW Heritage Branch database]

Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection ; CSL&RC PIC: small picture file : American & Australasian Photographic Co.

You may save or print this image for research and study. If you wish to use it for any other purposes, you must contact Museums of History NSW to request permission.

Picture

38798