Launceston Hotel: the changing face of our longest standing venue

Of these, the Launceston dates from 1823 or earlier, and the Cornwall to 1824.

There was a Black Swan Hotel at the corner of Brisbane and Wellington streets, which may date from 1815 or so, but it's long gone.

The Launceston Hotel began when Richard (Dick) White leased a block of land at the corner of today's Brisbane and St John streets, and decided to invest the money he'd made from selling meat to the government commissary and (possibly) gambling.

Dick had a fascinating history.

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Born in New York in 1773 and part black, he moved to England and became a highwayman.

Blessed by remarkable good fortune, though captured and sentenced to death in February 1797, three months later the sentence was commuted to transportation for life.

By 1813 at the Norfolk Island penal colony he was not only pardoned, but made a police constable!

On coming to Launceston in 1814 as a free settler, he received a land grant and within two years was a wealthy man.

He appears to have built the Launceston Hotel around this time, but it may initially have been a temporary structure.

By 1823 he'd built a permanent single-storey wooden structure with a verandah and rear stables on Brisbane Street., a large pond provided water for horses, and a well for domestic use.

Alongside, on what is now St John Street, he erected a separate auctioneer's rooms.

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"Black Dick" White cut a colourful figure around town, sporting polished boots, white buckskin breeches, frock coat and top hat, but now ageing, he'd acquired a monocle and walking stick.

In 1836 he leased the hotel to William Frost and retired to his big property on Boland Street, next to the old racecourse.

When he died in 1849 he still owned the hotel freehold, with William Kitson as lessee.

The property passed to the control of his wife Sarah's family, who sold it to wine merchant William Carpenter in 1856.

Carpenter moved the old building back, and built a two-storey edifice fronting the street, which became a landmark through the second half of the 19th century.

Sadly he promptly died, and in 1885 (after a facelift in 1882) his trustees finally sold the property to James Barclay, who immediately began demolition of the old hotel, then at the rear.

The following year, with renovations incomplete, Barclay sold to Joseph Huston, who completed the extensive works.

Unfortunately, Huston died in 1892 and the hotel and its licence passed to his widow Annie.

She would run it for another 51 years!

It was during Annie Huston's possession that the building was largely rebuilt in 1903, then modernised in 1939.

After Annie's death in 1942, her son Jack took over, on behalf of himself and his siblings.

They sold in 1949 to local bank manager Lionel Cranstoun, at a record price for a Tasmanian hotel.