Hot and cold water provided throughout.
Maitland Mercury, 26 September 1932.
One of the ‘new buildings’ was ‘a handsome two storey building’ to replace the variety of ‘outhouses’ ‘stretching northward’ on the site. The block was designed to ‘contain intermediate and private wards for women, maternity and children’s wards.’ (Maitland Mercury, 26 Sep 1932).
This ‘two storey block’ was to address a shortage in the patient accommodation and to provide facilities for paying (private and intermediate) patients.
The foundation stone was laid in December 1932 and the building was then constructed in two stages. The first was completed in 1933 and the second in 1939.
Foundation stone laid by R.W.D. Weaver on 19 December 1932.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 19)
In 2021 the plaque is still in situ on one of the building’s walls.
Views of the first stage of the building, June 1937 - photographed four years after completion.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 12 and 13)
The first stage was described at the time of its opening as having
...two large wards and four private wards on the ground floor, two wards, four private wards and two solarium or sun rooms upstairs. The two wards on the lower floor for women ... each accommodate eight beds. In addition to these wards there are the necessary rooms for essential services, obstetric theatre and sterilising room. Hot and cold water is provided throughout. (Maitland Mercury, 10 May 1933: 5).
1937 to 1939 saw the construction of the second stage of the building. This was the private ward wing at right angles adjoining the northern end of the existing building. An ‘air raid shelter’ was constructed under the eastern half of the wing. The eastern verandah and balcony of the existing building was also enclosed. (Conservation plan 1992, Building 12)
In November 1939 the general public was invited to inspect the additions and alterations to the hospital, including the remodelling of the existing part of the building and the construction of the new wing. Intending visitors were alerted to watch out for how, in the intermediate ward, ‘cork tiled flooring gives way to a soft green henna rubber carpet, which is edged with red and black... walls are of champagne.. woodwork brown’. Each private ward ‘has its own distinctive colouring and furnishings’ and its own ‘large three section window (which) opens on to a concrete verandah. .. A Queensland maple wardrobe and dressing table is provided in each, together with an easy chair and a visitor’s chair’. Each floor of the private ward also had a ‘sun room’. (Maitland Mercury, 3 Nov 1939)
A sunken garden and fishpond were created next to the building.
The private wards featured in the hospital’s centenary publication.
The private wards in the hospital’s centenary booklet Maitland Hospital 1842-1942, 1942.
(Maitland City Library)
Over the next decades, the buildings were adapted and refurbished. Their functions also changed. By 1992, the ground floor accommodated medical wards (known as E ward), and the first floor accommodated surgical wards (known as F ward). (Conservation plan 1992, Building 12)
The sunken garden and fishpond were replaced by garden beds and then, in the 1990s, the gardens largely disappeared to provide a footprint for the new ward buildings constructed during that decade. The 1990s buildings also obscured the view of the verandahs that graced the western wing.
By 2018, the building housed the rehabilitation and occupational therapy units on Level 1, and the birthing suite, special care nursery and Red Cross shop on Level 2 (Maitland Hospital Directory 2018).
Views of the private and intermediate wards building, 2019.
(Janis Wilton)