50-year association with hotel to end

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32860, 8 March 1972, Page 16

50-year association with hotel to end

(From Our Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH, March 7.

An era in the hotel business on the West Coast will end when the Golden Eagle Hotel in Greymouth changes hands soon, and the Steel family ends its 50-year association with the premises.

Poor health has led to the decision to sell by the present licensee, Mrs Margaret Steel, who took over the hotel with her late husband, Mr Jack Steel, well-known as an All Black wing, in 1935. Mr Steel was killed in a motor accident in 1941.

The family association with the hotel began in 1922 when the late Mr James Steel took over after having conducted the former Otira Gorge Hotel. He leased the hotel for a short time to one of his sons, the late Mr H. Steel, who later took over the Star and Garter Hotel in Christchurch. From him the business was transferred to Mr Jack Steel and his wife, who moved from Governor’s Bay to Greymouth in 1935. Since her husband’s death, Mrs Steel has conducted the business, becoming the long-est-serving licensee in the hotel trade in Greymouth.

Although a sale has not yet been made final, a Grey-mouth-based company Via Strata, Ltd, has indicated its intentions to purchase by applying to the West Coast Licensing Committee for a hotelkeeper’s licence for the premises.