Notes: One of the three hotels established in Springwood by the 1880s, the Oriental has local significance as a century-old residential hotel with a restaurant, catering for locals and visitors alike on the edge of the central business district, competing successfully with the Royal. Its significance is enhanced by its half century of ownership by the Lawson family, important as furniture-makers and as developers of their substantial acreage in the heart of Springwood.

In October 1889 James Lawson (1860-1926) bought part of Raymond’s land including the Springwood Hotel. Lawson saw the commercial opportunities of the old hotel and constructed a much larger two storey building which he opened in 1891, with the new name of The Oriental Hotel, the first licensee was Frank Brandon. However during the economic downturn of the 1890s Brandon became bankrupt and a long line of licensees followed, including around 1916-18 Stanley C Fallick.

In 1891 Springwood had a permanent population of around 400, but by 1900 this was more than doubled by railway work-gangs stationed in the area carrying out duplication of the western railway line, originally opened as a single track in 1867. Over 900 workmen, including navvies and fettlers, camped in tents in an area known as Canvas Town in bushland on the northern side of the railway station and provided the town with much needed extra business, if at times the hotels became a little rowdy on paydays.

The Oriental was also a venue for balls, dances, social club meetings, pigeon shooting matches, and a rendezvous for search parties combing the bush for lost walkers. It has also been remarked by older residents that James Lawson’s Presbyterian leaning encouraged a mainly Protestant clientele in contrast to the ostensibly Catholic, Royal Hotel up near the railway station. Crossing the sectarian line was a sure way to pick a fight.

James Lawson’s son William Maxwell Lawson owned the hotel for twenty years after his father’s death in 1926 and commenced major refurbishment of the hotel in 1928. William was also a cabinet-maker and donor to the Frazer Memorial Presbyterian Church near the Oriental, both of which contributed to the cultural life of Springwood in their own ways.

During World War II children from Sydney’s Burnside Homes in North Parramatta were evacuated to the Oriental Hotel in 1942. The licensee, Wally Edwards, constructed a temporary bar on the corner of Raymond and Macquarie Roads, later occupied by Galivante Men’s shop and now a real estate agency.

The Oriental hotel has aesthetic significance as a surviving substantial Victorian Hotel in the commercial centre of Springwood. While its original highly decorative character has been compromised by various alterations, it does retain its general form and proportions. With its location at a prominent corner in the town, it is a local landmark and is one of the few buildings left in the commercial centre of Springwood which give a sense of the town’s early history.

Format: B&W photograph

Date Range: 1920

Location: Springwood

Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons

Repository: Blue Mountains City Library <a href="https://bmcc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/default/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">bmcc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/default/</a>

Part of Local Studies Collection: SHS 062

Provenance: Springwood Historical Society