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The Heritage Hotel is a hotel in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. The building is noted for its late 19th century commercial architecture. ==History== The town's first pub was the Bush Inn, erected in 1856 on the site of the current Criterion Hotel. By the time of the city's proclamation in 1902 there were already 42 hotels in a town of only 3,000. The same number of establishments today services a population of over 60,000. In 1859, at 228 Quay Street (on the corner of Quay and William Streets), William James built the Golden Fleece Hotel. This hotel didn’t last long. It was reopened in 1864 as Hart's and then as the Commercial Hotel in 1865. History was made on the site in 1867 when the Gold Commissioner turn thief, Thomas John Griffin, shouted drinks at the hotel, and in doing so revealed himself as the murderer of two police officers. Ten days prior two officers were shot and killed whilst on gold escort: they were transporting £4,000 on the instruction of Griffin, who apprehended them en route and hijacked their payload. Griffin was revealed as the culprit when a pound note he used in the hotel was traced to the missing loot. After a few years of operation, there were was a long period of inactivity before the hotel was bought by Leah Johnson. It was then demolished and reopened as the Commercial Hotel and Chambers in 1897. Johnson was one of the most prominent hoteliers in the state. She had run the site before it was the Commercial Hotel, but with her husband's death in 1880 she moved on to manage hotels elsewhere throughout the state. Her new hotel, the current building, was a local effort, designed by J W Wilson and built by J K Evans. Its iron lace cast was made by the Burns and Twigg foundry, its joinery by W A Lawson and the furniture by James Stewart and Co. It was built within 6 months for a total cost of £7,000. Johnson, alongside her new hotel, became a local icon. She lived in 'Lubeck' on George Street and employed a manager to drive her to the hotel each day in a hooded sulky drawn by a stunning white horse. The Mayes family took over from Leah Johnson at the start of the 20th century. By this time the hotel had cemented its place as one of the grand old hotels of Rockhampton. The Hotel's restaurant was reportedly one of Douglas MacArthur's favourite dining rooms during his war-time stays in Rockhampton in the 1940s. In 1949 another well-known female Queensland hotelier, Pat Floyd, took over the Commercial. Her collection of wine, beer and spirit labels that she amassed over her years of stewardship is now on display near the entrance to the Hotel's foyer. In the early 1970s the Grieve family took over the hotel, but then sold it later that decade. The building was then earmarked for demolition and many of its original fixtures and fittings – doors, windows and some cabinetry – were stripped out. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Heritage Hotel Rockhampton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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