The Gawler Arms Hotel has an Interesting history, much of it has been rebuilt, or substantially improved, four times since it was first built in 1848, although records of exactly what work was carried out each time do not exist. The hotel was also the venue for an important document which was to change shopping hours in Gawler and result in the town's first workers' union being formed in 1864.
The first licence was taken out on December 20, 1848, by David Wickerstaff but the hotel then would have looked nothing like the building today. Original construction details are not known but it was certainly not a two-storey structure.
In 1868, according to the Hignett heritage study carried out in the 1970's, it was substantially extended and may have had a second storey added.
In any event, by 1868 it comprised 10 rooms and outbuildings. And by 1880 it was described as a two-storey stone building with balcony.
In 1903 it was allegedly rebuilt, but it appears more likely it was extensively renovated. The stables and stockyards at the rear of the hotel remained in use until 1926 when they were removed and the use of that area was converted to car parking.
According to Hignett, the building suggests renovations over a long period of time. For example, the lower level was tiled probably in the 1960's. Other additions over the years included a parapet with art nouveau curved leaf pattern.
The balcony featured a "Marseilles" style tiled roof and the upper level a stucco wall. The cast iron posts supporting the balcony from the footpath could well be original, with attractive iron balustrades and gable ends to the upper level verandah matching those of the adjacent Essex House (Crosbys store).
Clearly the hotel along with others in the town, provided stabling and accommodation for travellers heading north or south.
An early advertisement in The Bunyip (1864) reads: "Colonial wine, superior to that usually offered for harvest purposes, can now be obtained at the Gawler Arms Inn, Gawler, at five shillings per gallon."
Early meetings of the Gawler Permanent Building and Investment Society were held at the Gawler Arms in 1873. But the hotel was also the venue for a group of Gawler shop assistants who 10 years before that thrashed out a document which was to change shopping hours in the town dramatically.
In his History of Gawler, Derek Whitelock writes: "Gawler's industrial importance resulted in the formation of union branches around the turn of the century. But a much earlier union wa s the Gawler Shop Assistants' Association, set up as early as 1864, when work conditions were demanding by modern standards."
Gawler's original historian Ephraim Coombe was given this information by a foundation member, Otto Wehrstedt: "We assistants had no fixed holidays, no six o'clock shutting up in the evenings but kept open until seven o'clock. We met together at the Gawler Arms Hotel and drew up a memorial to the employers to grant us the requests set forth which the Adelaide shop assistants enjoyed.
"We found it not much trouble to persuade the employers to see that the same amount of business could be done. I recollect that before that came to pass I used to be in the shop on Sat urday night till12 o'clock."
An interesting link with the past occurred last year when Barkleys Menswear store at the corner of Murray and Jacob street was demolished to make way for new shops. For the first time in more than a century the northern wall of the Gawler Arms was exposed and the signwritten name "J. Korff" appeared in a painted advertisement. Mr. John Korff was one of the hotel's earliest licensees, operating the business from 1850 to 1856.
The story of the disappearance of the original town coat of arms from high on the front face of the building is an other mystery. But the re is one witness to the removal of the heavy brass plate which was bolted to the wallÑformer Gawler businessman Max Rogers.
Max stood on the eastern side of the street one day about 1970 and watched two painters, working on the front wall, unbolt and take the brass coat of arms off. He said they then passed it up and over the roof, instead of lowering it to the ground in Murray street. From that day it has not been seen, although a few years later Max did ask licensee Tony Giannitto what had happened to the coat of arms. But Mr. Giannitto said he had no idea. Today the hotel boasts a coat of arms again, placed there last week. But instead of Gawler's crest, it is the Giannitto family crest.