Hydro Majestic Hotel | |
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General information | |
Location | 52-88 Great Western Highway, Medlow Bath, Australia |
Coordinates | 33°40′32.85″S150°16′51.08″E / 33.6757917°S 150.2808556°E |
Opening | 1891 (Belgravia Hotel) 1904 (Hydro Majestic) |
Website | |
http://www.hydromajestic.com.au/ |
The Hydro Majestic Hotel is located in Medlow Bath, New South Wales, Australia. The hotel is located on a clifftop overlooking the Megalong Valley on the western side of the Great Western Highway.
The hotel is heritage listed and is notable for its unusual mix of architectural styles, including Art Deco and Edwardian. One key feature is the Casino dome (pictured). The dome was bought in Chicago and shipped to Australia, before being shipped to the Blue Mountains by bullock train and reassembled at the site. [1]
The Australian retailer Mark Foy began to purchase the site in 1902 for the purposes of a hydropathic sanatorium under the belief that the land contained mineral springs.
The Hydro Majestic site was originally three different land holdings and their buildings. The first was the country retreat of W.H. Hargraves, registrar in Equity and a trustee of the Australian Museum in Sydney, son of the man who claimed credit for the discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851. The single-storey house, with elaborate tree and shrub plantings, was bought by Mark Foy in 1901 and developed into the Hargravia section of the Hydro. [2]
The second was the hotel. It began as the Belgravia Hotel which was completed in 1891. [3] The hotel was a health retreat and the building was constructed in Queen Anne style. It was owned and operated by Mr and Mrs Ellis and was acquired by Mark Foy in 1903. [2]
The third was a cottage owned by Alfred Tucker, whose widow later ran the Wonderland Park guesthouse to the north of the gatekeeper's cottage. [2] At that stage the town was known as "Medlow" and Mark Foy successfully petitioned the New South Wales government to change the name to Medlow Bath, the current name. [4] It is not known if he requested the name change to make it sound more prestigious, or if he wanted to avoid confusion with another town called Medlow, also in New South Wales.
Foy spared no expense, building gardens, bringing in his own herd of cows for milk and, not a man to be bested, is said to have had electricity and a working telephone four days before metropolitan Sydney. [5]
By the time the hotel opened in 1904, the mineral springs (if they ever existed) had dried up. Mark Foy had mineral water imported from Germany in large steel containers. After travelling in these containers from Germany to Australia the water reportedly tasted awful, and so it was assumed that it must have been good for a person's health. Guests of the hotel were instructed to drink this water on a regular basis.
By 1906 the popularity of this sort of health retreat had passed and Mark Foy set about rebranding the establishment as a luxury retreat, renaming it the Hydro Majestic. All health treatments and remedies were removed from all advertising, although many remained available on request.
In October 1913, it was reported that Foy had sold the property to businessman and NSW parliamentarian James Joynton Smith for a reputed £60,600. [6]
During World War II a building on the grounds was turned over to the 118 General Hospital for U.S. troops. [7]
Fire destroyed the gallery building in 1905,[ citation needed ] the laundry in 1912, [8] and the original Belgravia wing in 1922. [9] Being surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park, bushfires have regularly threatened the hotel. Bushfires were extremely close to the hotel again on 8 December 2002. [10]
The hotel received heritage listing in 1984. After many decades of decline and neglect the Hydro Majestic underwent a series of refurbishments during the 1990s. The AccorHotels group became associated with the hotel from about 2002 until 2006 and then a smaller Malaysian based group took over the running of the hotel, borrowing the name "Hydro Majestic" to brand their other hotels in Asia. In 2008 the hotel was closed for refurbishment, with the new owners to allow the hotel to be restored and add new facilities. The owners, Huong Nguyen and George Saad are said to have paid $11 million for the property and have spent $30 million on the refurbishment. [11]
The owners of the hotel announced in late 2012 the redevelopment of the Hydro Majestic Hotel. [12] Stage one is due for completion in June 2014. [13] Stage One includes the majority of the historic areas from the Casino to the southern end of the site and new construction, re-planting and beautification of the gardens including the avenue of Pines and the renovation of the Hotel façade, which has a 1.1 km frontage to the Megalong Valley escarpment. In the renovated Hotel, the historic Casino building will become the Casino Lobby, a grand lobby entry and function room. A renovated area behind the Casino Lobby will become a five star restaurant called The Wintergarden. The other historic buildings, The Billiard Room, The Cat's Alley, The Majestic Ballroom in Hargraves House, and the Delmonte conference rooms will also be renovated in this stage.
This section needs to be updated.(April 2022) |
Stage Two of the development, planned to commence around two years after the completion of Stage One will construct the new accommodation wings and a large spa complex. The Belgravia Lounge will be the final old building to be renovated. The reconstruction of the Belgravia Wing and addition of the new Mark Foy Wing will add luxury suites to the Hydro Majestic Hotel.
After stage two the Hydro Majestic Hotel will have one of the largest spa complexes in the southern hemisphere. The second stage will also include renovation of the heritage rooms in the existing Delmonte and Hargravia buildings. The Cat's Alley will be extended with a new restaurant to be known as the Flying Fox fine dining restaurant.[ citation needed ]
One of the most imposing buildings of the hotel is the casino building. "Casino" in this usage means meeting hall or pavilion, and it was never officially used for gambling. The casino building is an ornate late Victorian Italianate wedding-cake structure which serves as the grand ballroom of the current establishment. It was shipped from Chicago in the early 1900s and assembled by 1903. [14]
The casino was the venue of the first performance of Dame Nellie Melba's famously-long farewell tour in 1928. Dame Clara Butt also performed in the venue. The last performance in the room was a small production of The Mikado in 1969.
The casino will re-open as the main guest entry to the hotel complex with Lounge and Function Space, Pre-function to Wintergarden and linked to the new Passage bar.
There are three main guest wings in the hotel: Belgravia, Hargravia and Delmonte.
The Belgravia wing was initially the former Belgravia Hotel. After being destroyed by fire, construction started on the new Belgravia wing in 1922 and completed in 1936.
The Hargravia wing is named after "Hargraves House", initially on the site of the hotel. Hargraves House was built by William Hargraves, son of Edward Hargraves, the alleged discoverer of gold in Australia.
There are three suites in the hotel: the Majestic Room, the Grand Majestic Suite and the Valley Suite.
As well as Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Clara Butt, other famous guests of the hotel have included: munitions heiress Bertha Krupp, who donated a Bechstein grand piano to the hotel; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, for whom the Blue Mountains were the inspiration for The Lost World; and more recently, Russell Crowe who was asked to remove his baseball cap while dining in the Great Dining Hall in 1994.[ citation needed ]
Boxer Tommy Burns set up a training camp at the Hydro Majestic ahead of his world title fight against Jack Johnson in Sydney in 1908, running for miles on mountain tracks in preparation. [15]
Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton died of a heart attack at the hotel while holidaying there in 1920. [16]
Medlow Bath is a village located near the highest point of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. Located between Katoomba and Blackheath, its altitude is about 1,050 metres (3,440 ft) AHD. It is about 115 kilometres (71 mi) west-north-west of the Sydney central business district and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north-west of Katoomba. At the 2016 census, Medlow Bath had a population of 611 people.
The Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum is the former residence and farmlet of Australian artist Norman Lindsay. Now an art gallery, tourist attraction and museum located at 14–20 Norman Lindsay Crescent in the Blue Mountains town of Faulconbridge in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia, it was built from 1898 to 1913 by Francis Foy, Patrick Ryan, Lindsay, and the artist's wife, Rose Lindsay. The property, owned by the National Trust of Australia (NSW), is also known as Maryville and Springwood.
Megalong Valley is part of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. It is located west of Katoomba. On its eastern side, the valley is separated from the Jamison Valley by Narrow Neck Plateau. The Shipley Plateau overlooks part of the valley.
The City of Blue Mountains is a local government area of New South Wales, Australia, governed by the Blue Mountains City Council. The city is located in the Blue Mountains, on the Great Dividing Range at the far western fringe of the Greater Sydney area. Major settlements include, Katoomba, Lawson, Springwood and Blaxland.
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The Blue Mountains Dams are a series of six dams in the Blue Mountains which supply water to the Blue Mountains and Sydney, Australia. The Dams are managed by the WaterNSW. Water in this scheme may be supplemented from the Fish River Scheme.
Medlow Bath railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the Main Western line in Medlow Bath in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by NSW Government Railways and built from 1902 to 1922. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Mark Foy's Limited or Mark Foy's was a department store in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, founded by Francis Foy and his brother Mark Foy. The department store was named after their father, Mark Foy (senior), and traded between 1885 and 1980.
The 118th General Hospital was a U.S. Army military hospital built in 1942 at Riverwood, New South Wales. This was the largest military hospital in Australia, during World War II.
Sir James John Joynton Smith, commonly referred to simply as Joynton Smith, was an Australian hotelier, racecourse and newspaper owner, and Lord Mayor of Sydney.
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The Blue Mountains Mystery is a lost 1921 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and co-directed by Lottie Lyell.
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Henry Eli White, also known as Harry White, was a New Zealand-born architect best known for the many theatres and cinemas he designed in New Zealand and Australia in the 1910s and 1920s. Many of the major surviving historic venues in the two countries are White designs, including the St. James Theatre, Wellington, St. James Theatre, Auckland, the Capitol Theatre and State Theatre in Sydney, and the Palais Theatre and the interiors of the Princess Theatre and Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne. He also designed the City Hall and the attached Civic Theatre in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Mark Foy was an Australian retail businessman and entrepreneur who established the department store Mark Foy's in Sydney. He also opened the Hydro Majestic Hotel in the Blue Mountains, a hydropathic resort with Swiss doctors and spa water from Baden in Germany. In addition he was a keen sportsman with interests in rifle shooting, boxing, sailing and motor racing.
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Medlow Dam is a heritage-listed major gated concrete-walled arch dam across the Adams Creek in the Blue Mountains region, located at Beauchamp Road, Medlow Bath in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The dam was designed and built in 1907 by the NSW Department of Public Works. The dam's purpose is primarily for the potable water supply of the upper Blue Mountains region. The impounded reservoir is called Medlow Bath Reservoir. The dam is also known as Medlow Bath Dam, Lake Medlow Dam, Adams Creek Dam and Medlow Bath Reservoir. The property is owned by Sydney Water, a state-owned corporation of the Government of New South Wales. The dam was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18 November 1999.
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