The Victoria Hotel is celebrating 100 years since the opening of its “new” premises in 1923, although the Vic is a pub that can trace its heritage back to the very earliest days of settlement in Orange.

The oldest hotel in Orange?

The sturdy brick hotel building that stands proudly alongside the railway line in Summer Street today is now more than 100 years old, but did you know the Victoria Hotel is a pub with far longer history than that — three-quarters of a century longer in fact!

The first recorded liquor licence granted for the settlement at Blackman’s Swamp, as Orange was originally known, was in June 1837 for the East India Arms, although little is known about this inn.

But the following year, John Peisley was also granted a liquor licence for his The Coach and Horse hotel, located on the western edge of the town (on the northeastern corner of the Duntryleague golf course).

But six years later, in 1844, John Peisley was first given a licence for a Coach and Horse Hotel, in a premises built by John Moulder on land he owned on Bathurst Road east of the young settlement — the site of the current Victoria Hotel.

In the 1850s Peisley also operated a thrice weekly coach service from his hotel, carrying mail and passengers to and from the goldfields at Ophir.

During the gold rush years, it’s said that as many as 16 beds were laid in one room of the hotel, but Peisley’s inn was a lodging house frequented by respectable and influential people, including Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1851.

In 1953, Peisley sold the Coach and Horses to George McKay, who had previously been the licensee of the Bush Inn at Summer Hill.

We’ve been unable to ascertain exactly what year it was the Coach and Horses was renamed the Victoria Hotel, but it was the name given on the licence to E. Higgens in 1867 and the name that has survived to this day.

In 1908, the Victoria Hotel was one of three pubs in East Orange, although on the other side of the railway Orange boasted 25 establishments. A newspaper report that year on the transfer of the licence to Michael Dower describes the hotel as one of the oldest in the district, but adds that it had been recently rebuilt and renovated.

When Harry Adams took over the Victoria the following year, in 1909, it was the only hotel remaining in East Orange. Adams (described in Orange Leader as “affable ‘Arry”) bought the hotel outright in 1913 and again it is reported the hotel had been recently renovated “inside and out”.

Eight years later though, in 1921, the old wooden hotel is described by one witness as being in a less than ideal state: “The stabling, wood-house, buggy shed, etc. were old and dilapidated… [The Hotel] was no ornament to the town, and, in its present position, no material public inconvenience would be suffered if it closed.”

Demolition of the old Victoria Hotel began in June 1922, during which the Leader said the rafters were ‘as sound as the day they were put there, which is over 60 years ago.’

Numerous old coins were also uncovered under the old floorboards during the demolition, the oldest of which included an 1817 shilling and a King George IV penny of 1826!

But for patrons, it was “Business as usual,” so read an advertisement, advising that a temporary bar would continue serving wine, spirits and rum.

In the April 13, 1923 edition of the Leader, the writer enthused about the now open new establishment under the heading “A MODERN HOTEL”.

“The general public, and visitors in particular, at once became considerably impressed as they cross the line and view the modernised appearance of the Victoria Hotel. The spot is where the first hotel in the Orange district was built, and, until last year, the well-known hostelry served faithfully for a considerable period the purpose for which it was erected. But with the progress of time, a change had to be made, and the old building has now been replaced with premises which are a distinct credit to the builders and proprietors. Not only are they ornate in appearance, but the appointments throughout are complete in every detail, and cleanliness and comfort strike the visitor at once as being the outstanding features.”