Seaham Hotel

Seaham Hotel

Written and compiled by the late Brian Gilligan
(great grandson of Thomas and Mary McDonald)

The hotel was constructed in 1903-04 by Thomas and Mary McDonald at the intersection of Clarence Town Road and Dixon Street at a time when Clarence Town Road formed part of the main road to the north coast of NSW. This changed after World War I when the decision was made to route the Main Northern Railway through Paterson rather than Seaham. The McDonalds sold the hotel in 1920 to Danny Moore who later sold it to Jack Laurie from Clarence Town. It retained its operating licence until 1929 but became progressively dilapidated in the early 1930s and was destroyed by fire in 1935.

Seaham Hotel (circa 1905)

by Ada Mc Donald (1888 – 1956)

This painting in oil on opaque white glass depicts the Seaham Hotel, soon after its completion in 1903-04 by Thomas Mc Donald.  Located on the south-eastern side of the intersection of Dixon Street and Clarence Town Road, the building was designed by W J Scobie (architect) and constructed by Pilgrim Brothers of Maitland.

The view in the painting is from the northwest, with Dixon Street extending eastwards up the hill to the left and Clarence Town Road running south to north, from right to left across the foreground. The roads are narrow, used at that time almost exclusively by horses and horse drawn vehicles.

Small trees in tree guards in the front of the hotel are seen in later photographs as mature trees and the intersection has been widened, presumably to accommodate increasing numbers of motor cars.

The painting is the work of a young Ada Mc Donald, my paternal grandmother, (Lex Mc Donald, pers.comm. 1970s) who lived in the hotel with her family from the time of its completion until it was sold in 1920 after the decision to route the Main Northern Railway through Paterson rather than Seaham led to reduced economic activity in the local area.

The hotel was initially sold to Danny Moore who later sold it to Jack Laurie. The licence was relinquished in 1928 and the build stood empty for several years, before being destroyed by fire in 1935.

The glass painting was broken at some stage and reassembled, with or without any restoration of the artwork. I photographed the painting in the home of Lex and Maud Mc Donald in the late 1970s.

The painting was subsequently broken again and re-glued, with very significant damage to the paintwork caused by glueing and smearing of the paint by solvents.

In 2010, Maud Mc Donald gave me the painting and I arranged for a friend, and natural history artist, Herbert Heinrich (who was also a Seaham resident 1973 – 2000) to restore the work. Herbert cleaned the surface, noting the amount of colour change in the paint as evidenced by the difference between the main picture and those sections covered by mats and frame. Even the protected areas had also lost their original vibrancy.

Herbert restored the damaged areas to reflect what could be identified from the 1970’s photo of the painting. The glass was then reinforced by glueing it to a foam board support which hopefully will prevent further physical damage. The frame was also cleaned and recoloured where chipped.

Written by Brian Gilligan 25 April 2010

with thanks to supporting reference from Cynthia Hunter.