This old photo, courtesy of the
Collingwood Historical Society, was taken in 1887 at a time of great civic
pride for the City of Collingwood. The Town Hall has just been opened,
and is looking magnificent. A horse and buggy is passing by the St Philip's
rectory travelling south along a Hoddle St almost unrecognisable today
as a narrow, quiet street.
Outside the church a man is doing
something on the road with a wheelbarrow, watched by two little boys. On
the right is the Victoria Hotel, Isaac Coombs's ironmonger's and various
shops, including Harry Pullin the plumber's verandahed shop. Signs on the
outside of the hotel announce the delights within such as "billiards" and
"assembly rooms", and in the street outside are several posts for tethering
horses and a watering-trough. In the nineteenth century it was common for
many organizations and clubs to meet in hotels. An araucaria grows in the
front garden of one of the houses in the distance.
This photo is in an album of photos
presented to Archibald Aitken on the occasion of his retirement from the
mayoralty and council in 1887.
