Home from Home Hotel (fmr)

Statement of Significance

The place is representative of the Australian Pub tradition as a single-storey hotel with a verandah that extends over the pavement as a dominant streetscape element. The place is significant for its continuity of use. The place is associated with the 1934 race riots.

Physical Description

The existing improvements include a single-storey front section incorporating the original façade with two-storey rear accommodation with a lean-to iron roof, probably original. Most of the stone and brick masonry has been overpainted. The roof is iron. The replacement parapet does not match the original design depicted in photographs of the two-storey building. The roof is concealed behind a rendered parapet with a triangular pediment. The exterior walls are made of rock-faced stone with brick quoin work. Openings are elliptical arches with curved sashes. The window frames are recessed behind the outer face of the building. A single level street verandah extends over the footpath along the street facade. The verandah roof is bullnosed covered with corrugated galvanised iron and supported on slender posts decorated with carved timber brackets. The words 'Hannans Hotel' decorate the parapet. The building was designed in the Federation Georgian style.

History

: The building was established as a hotel and continues to be used as a hotel. In 1934, an Italian barman Claudio Mattaboni was involved in a fight outside the premises, resulting in the death of a popular local figure, George Jordan. The incident sparked the race riots. The hotel and the adjoining All Nations Boarding House were, among others, destroyed by fire. The original two-storey stone and iron structure was burnt in the 1934 race riots. The original structure had a two-storey verandah with a parapet surmounted by a semi-circular patterned pediment (Statewide Hotel Survey, 1996). The description of how the riots escalated after the death of Jordan was printed in the Kalgoorlie Miner as follows: " The western end of Hannan Street during the past few years has been largely populated by foreigners who have made the Home from Home Hotel, conducted by R. Gianatti, and the Kalgoorlie Wine Saloon and the All Nations boarding house on the opposite side of the street, their rendezvous. [The proprietors of the hotel] received definite warning that an attack would be made…The first intimation of any trouble was the gathering crowd. After a few minutes silence a stone was thrown through the front bar window of the hotel….There were several foreigners in the bar but they quickly disappeared through the rear of the premises, scenting danger…hoards [sic] of several hundred young men swarmed through the front door…choice spirits, including bottles of champagne were gathered up by some of the men or swept to the ground with a resounding crash…the fixtures of the bar were torn down, chairs were used to batter in mirrors and pictures and advertisements were dragged from the walls. All the rooms of the ground floor were dismantled and furniture…was broken by ever increasing streams of men…Curtains were torn down from one of the front upstairs rooms opening into a verandah and one of the crowd with a bucket of methylated spirit poured some on to curtains and portions of broken chairs in an attempt to fire the premises. The material flamed for a time, and lit up the whole of the front room but failed to ignite the building…[The roadway] was beginning to run with broached casks of beer and bottles of wine and spirits…men broke into the cellar, and casks of beer were carried into the street…The evidence of spoil could be seen on many men whose shirts were filled with bottles ((Kalgoorlie Miner, 30 January 1934). Crowds of onlookers gathered, but were careful to avoid injury. "….several men discovered the proprietor's new Ford sedan car in the garage…and set fire to the machine. The crowd drew back to the opposite side of the street expecting an explosion of petrol but the fire brigades, [attempting] to save a dwelling on the western side of the garage, turned their hoses into the flaming mass amid derisive hoots and jeers from some of the crowd. To keep the crowd back, the hose was turned from the building and the spray of water caused a stampede." An ugly incident followed. "Several police who were attempting to save the wrecked hotel…became the object of the crowd's attack, and bottles and stones rained on them. They took what refuge they could behind the posts of the verandahs…Eventually…the attack ceased. The police were then surrounded by a shouting crowd, urging them to give a reason for their action in preventing further loot. Constable Woodcock received a nasty cut over his eye and head, and was taken to hospital. The crowd was now out of hand…. Miners' blasting powder, 'fracteur', ubiquitous on the goldfields, was used to ignite the hotel, where the roof fell in at ten o'clock, and to set fire to the All Nations boarding house (Webb, 1993: 660). General Comments: The role of hotels was crucial to the social and economic life on the goldfields. If mines were the sources of the miner's wages, the hotels were the sinks into which a lot of it was poured. Hotels not only provided alcoholic drinks, food and accommodation, but provided men with comfortable surroundings quite beyond their normal experience. Hotels were also vital social centres for travellers and residents alike (Webb, 1993: 543-544).

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High Authenticity: Moderate to Low

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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