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| STABLES ON BAPTIST CHURCH SITE, WELLINGTON STREET |
In the late 1850s Henry Davy Parr took
over the Royal Hotel at 22 Wellington Street (currently the Baptist Church Offices – see
last week's post).
He is reputed to have spent some two thousand
pounds developing the site, building stables in 1857, and making
other improvements, and the establishment became known as “Parr's
Family Hotel”.
Henry Davey Parr was a remarkable man.
His obituary, published in The
Examiner on 01 February 1878, is
well worth reading. It omits to mention Parr's passage to
Tasmania (compliments of the British government – he arrived as a
convict in 1833). Apart from “publican” Parr was variously a
farmer (at Westbury), veterinarian, horsebreeder and trainer, owner
of the Mowbray racetrack, and proponent of a (sadly) ineffective
cure for cancer!! He seems to have been well-respected and liked,
renowned for his “smiling countenance.” Prior to the Royal, Parr
was licensee of the Australian and Tasmanian Hotel, the Queen's Head
Hotel (also in Wellingon Street), and afterwards, the Post Office
Hotel, and Temperance Hotels in Paterson street.
Parr's hotels were not favoured by
dedicated drinkers and were thus known as a comfortable and safe
place to stay. This was particularly notable at a time when many of
the residents of Wellington Street were said to be too scared to
venture out after dark!
Parr continued to operate the hotel until the 1870s when it was
purchased by Henry Reed who was keen to establish an evangelical
mission to the people of Launceston. More next time........
