The Shepparton Hotel is being reduced to rubble by contractors brought in following an order by Greater Shepparton City Council for emergency demolition.
The derelict shell of the hotel has sat for more than 15 years following a fire and has been subject to a series of disputes between the owners and council.
The loss of the building will remove a familiar landmark — including this week the name ‘E.J. Maltby 1860’ chiselled on the front.
The original hotel was probably built in about 1860 but the earliest record of the Shepparton Hotel was in 1873.
But it wasn’t on the current site. It was at the other end of the block, on the Welsford St corner.
John Dooley ran the business but later the building was purchased by William Fraser.
There is little known about the Shepparton Hotel prior to Mr Fraser’s ownership except it was said to be a grog house.
Although the original Shepparton Hotel building was on the corner of Welsford and High Sts, the site included all of the land along High St, from Welsford St through to Wyndham St.
About 1900, the then-hotel keeper Tommy Mitchell transferred the hotel building to the Wyndham and High Sts corner, but the transfer wasn’t without problems.
In the first instance, Mr Mitchell wanted to build a separate hotel on the Wyndham St corner but couldn’t get approval, so he overcame the problem by building a long brick wall extending from the old hotel along High St to Wyndham St.
He then simply kept on building his new hotel on the corner of Wyndham St.
About 1908, the new proprietor Ted Maltby added a second storey to the hotel and added his name E. J. Maltby to the upper part of the building, alongside the year 1860, which was the construction date of the original pub on Welsford St, not the one currently being demolished.