CHARLESTON
The Melbourne Hotel was on Section 400, a house of 12 bedrooms, built by Messrs. Sommer & Johnstone, of Greymouth, in May, 1867. It was opened by them on the 4th of that month, as “Johnstone’s Melbourne Hotel”; the Charleston Argus announcing that on that day “from 10.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., all-comers would be properly entertained at the proprietor’s expense.” The next landlord was J. Hamilton, also in 1867. In January, 1868, it was acquired by Harry Kennedy, of Kennedy & Heighway, which firm dissolved partnership in March of that year. On 6th February, 1868, the half-interest of Samuel Heighway was sold by auction. On 21st September, 1868, the entire interest was purchased by Gilmer & Co. for £900. Later landlords were Owen McArdle, Richard Warne, P. O’Conor, and Thos. Lander. It was destroyed by fire in 1904 and was not rebuilt.
The European Hotel was on Section 138. This, now the only remaining licensed house in Charleston, stands in solitary state upon what was in early days the town’s busiest centre, and looks out upon the waste that once was Charleston. Its walls once vibrated with the sounds of revelry and mirth, its large concert-room rang with song, music, and the tap of feet in dance. In its busy rooms many met to discuss enterprises and finance and sport; here Masons and other Lodge-men observed their rites and rituals. If walls could speak, what history might be written! The first landlord was Charles Weitzel, in 1867. There followed Arthur King, Charles Woodhead, Alex Peters, and John Powell who still holds the license.
The West Coast Hotel. Although not a leading hotel this was, for forty-five years, one of the most popular; and Mary Smith, its landlady for over forty years, one of the most widely-known and respected of the pioneers. Arriving at “Pakihi” about 1869, from Waimea where her son was the first white child born, she opened a hotel at Broomielaw, but about 1870 removed thence to the West Coast Hotel, which she conducted until her death on 8th August, 1912. During this period she did not leave Charleston even for a visit elsewhere, and one of her last-expressed regrets was that she had “not seen the Westport bridge.”
124
