Hotel 'Royal Oak'
Description
This two-storey hotel sits on a high plinth and is constructed of freestone rubble with a hipped roof. The building retains its original first floor detailing with five pairs of French doors set under single stone slab lintels. Double hung windows and semi-circular headed door openings on the Ground Floor have been altered and have cement rendered quoins. The verandah has also been modified at Ground Floor level with more widely spaced squared section steel columns replacing the original posts. The hotel has undergone many alterations and has recently been re-roofed.
History
The hotel dates from 1850, when Edward Mitchell purchased Lots 1,2,3 and 15 of George Morphett's subdivision of Section 801. In 1855 Mitchell obtained a licence for a hotel and in March 1856 the District Council ordered Mr Edward Mitchell to increase the accommodation facilities at the Royal Oak. The additions could not have been substantial, for a detailed plan of the town by Presgrave of 20 October 1859 shows the Royal Oak Hotel as only about the same size as the present Bible Christian Church. The Royal Oak Hotel as it exists today would appear to result from rebuilding carried out between 1860 and 1866. By the 1880's and additional section with a hipped slate-clad roof had been built at the rear of the 1860's structure and additional wings had been erected to either side of the ground floor.
Photo(s) courtesy of: Bruce Harry and Associates (2007) and City of Onkaparinga Libraries.