Handsome and substantial.
The 1905 building soon after completion.
(Maitland City Library)
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, increasing demands for services and care at Maitland Hospital fostered calls for a new building. The existing main building dated from the late 1840s. It was described as overcrowded and ‘decidedly antiquated'. Lobbying and fundraising resulted in a new building. The foundation stone was laid on 28 October 1903 by Neville Cohen, President of the Hospital Board. The building was opened on 22 March 1905 by Premier Joseph Carruthers.
Left: 1903 Foundation stone (Tom Healy 2018)
Right: 1905 plaque commemorating opening of the building (Tom Healy 2018)
Designed by architect John James Clark and built by local builder Andrew Burg, the new building was described as ‘a most substantial and handsome addition to the architecture of the land'. It housed two men’s wards on the southern end and two women’s wards on the northern end with the intermediate, or public, wards downstairs and the private wards upstairs. The ‘spacious verandahs and balconies’ were commended for being ‘wide enough to allow beds to be wheeled onto them’, and the appliances throughout described as ‘most modern’. There was also a new operating theatre.
The building in the early twentieth century.
(Maitland City Library)
As with other buildings on the hospital site, the 1905 building has been adapted as new and expanding demands called for further facilities and different uses. As well, views to and from the building are cluttered by subsequent additions.
The integrity of the building, however, remains. Its ‘substantial and handsome’ exterior is still there – even if partly hidden - as are architectural features that define it as an example of the work of architect John James Clark who is described as ‘Australia’s most respected hospital architect’ of the time by architectural historian Andrew Dodd.
Views of the 1905 building taken in 2019 and 2020.
(Janis Wilton)
Significance
The 1905 Maitland Hospital building is of high significance because it:
marks the growing significance of the public health services provided by Maitland Hospital;
is an iconic building in Maitland’s history due to its location and its function;
is associated with John James Clark, renowned hospital architect of the time; and
is associated with many local and state identities, many of whose names are on plaques throughout the building.
References and resources
Dodd, Andrew ‘J.J. Clark: child prodigy architect and his winning but ill-fated design for a Free Public Library in Sydney’, The La Trobe Journal, 86, 2010.
Wilton, Janis, Maitland Hospital - Block J, Views of Maitland (online database), Record B29
Maitland Mercury, 4 November 1899 and 25 March 1905.