'The Old Spot', Gawler Town. From a sketch by Samuel Calvert.

Old Spot Hotel, Murray Street, Gawler, was the first building erected in Gawler. J.W. Mathews was the licensee of the Old Spot Hotel from 1954-1964. The hotel was also licensed by Mr. John Knowles (d.1896), who was the first man to take South Australian wine to England.

The new province of Adelaide undertook much building especially churches, but just as quickly was soon proliferated with pubs, much to the concern of reformists. In the early stages of colonisation, the pub offered more than just food and drink - it also offered accommodation to new arrivals; facilities for communal services such as meeting rooms, reading rooms, lending libraries and postal service, as well as facilities for entertainments such as dances, cock fighting and boxing. The pub also was a welcoming place to the lonely newly arrived male, who was able to meet and mingle with others in similar circumstances and alleviate some of the loneliness.

Initially many pubs consisted of a single storey of brick or clay which quite often reverted to housing if the bar trade dwindled. As Adelaide's importance and prosperity grew the need to rebuild many pubs occurred with the addition of an extra storey and the inclusion of deep verandahs and balconies.

The Wakefield companion to South Australian history (p. 46, 2001) states: 'There has probably never been a time when Adelaide had more churches than hotels, but 'city of pubs' was not an image that the colonial fathers encouraged'.

Samuel Calvert (1828-1913) was a well known etcher and printmaker. By July 1850 Calvert had set up an Artists' Repository in King William Street. In 1851 he was in partnership with the printer Alfred Waddy (who remained a printer and publisher in Adelaide long after Calvert moved to Melbourne). As well as illustrative work for the Almanac, Calvert produced wood engravings for billheads and advertisements, and lithographed views such as The Old Spot, Gawler Town and Railway Hotel Port Adelaide. The original watercolour for his lithograph City of Adelaide S.A. Looking South East, issued as a free supplement in the April issue of the Almanac, is in the Art Gallery of South Australia, which also holds his wash drawing, Port Adelaide Regatta and the North Arm ... December 24th, 1850. For more information see Dictionary of Australian artists onlineSamuel Calvert.

Calvert, Samuel, 1828-1913

Old Spot Hotel (Gawler, S. Aust.)

Coombe, EH History of Gawler, 1837 to 1908 Hampstead Gardens, S.A.: Austaprint, 1978