The Gordon Hotel, located at 63 Bentinck Street Portland, was established in 1842 as the Commercial Inn and was renamed the Gordon Hoitel in 1890.
The hotel was rebuilt in stages between the 1870s and 1928, when works included the addition of the distinguishing portico.
Oliver Dolphin was one of the hotel’s most notable publicans during the 1890s. He also held the license at the London Hotel in Portland.
Dolphin was a Portland Borough councillor and chairman of the Portland Cricket Club. He was also a singer, performing at concerts in and around Portland. He also took photos of local events, with his photos available for sale at the office of the Portland Guardian newspaper.
Oliver left Portland for Glenorchy to run the Royal Hotel and is buried at the Stawell Cemetery.
In 1946, the now defunct airline company, Ansett purchased the Gordon Hotel and nearby Mac’s Hotel. At the time when the company owned about 300 hotels Australia-wide.
Ansett sold the Gordon in 1949. In that year, Portland historian Noel Learmonth wrote that the Gordon Hotel was the longest continuously held license in Victoria (Portland Guardian, October 24, 1949).
While the hotel claims to be the oldest continuous license issued in Victoria to this day, there are other hotels that also claim the title.
The Duke of Wellington and the Mac Hotel claim to have been issued licenses in 1835. There is also the Elephant Bridge Hotel in Darlington, which also claims to be operating under the same continuous license since 1842.
Subscribe to the latest Time Gents’ stories
PAYPAL BAR TIP
If you would like to support my work, you can leave a small ‘bar tip’ here of $2, or several small tips, just increase the amount as you like. Your generous patronage of my work and research, however small it appears to you, will greatly help me with my continuing costs.
$2.00
OR DONATE BY CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD
INSTEAD, you can make a small donation towards the publishing of the Time Gents website with your credit or debit card. If you would like to support my work, you can leave a $2 donation here, or you can increase the amount after clicking into the icon below. Your generous patronage of my work and research, however small it appears to you, will greatly help me with my continuing costs.
Categories: Victoria hotels
Thought The Duke of Wellington and the Mac Hotel were issued in 1835? 5 years earlier than 1840.
The Elephant Bridge Hotel in Darlington has been operating under the same continuous license since 1842.