History of the Herons Building

In 1854, on June 13th, Sarah and Rachel Raleigh bought the land for £200. On Jan 3rd, 1857 they sold it for £500 to Francis Paynter (who would become the Mayor of Castlemaine the following year) and Jonathon Tomkin, Solicitors. Mortgages were taken out with Thomas Lyttleton, Inspector of Police in the disctrict.

Building commenced early in 1858. The builder was T.F. Kibble and the architect was Edmund Spencer. In 1859 the building commenced trading as The Supreme Court Hotel. The Castlemaine Football Club was founded at a meeting in the Saloon on June 15the, 1859 making it the second oldest football club in Victoria, after the Melbourne Football Club.

In 1913, after trading for 53 years, the Hotel was de-licensed and quickly fell into disrepair. Dr Leonard Hartnett, bought the property 23 years later and converted it into 4 apartments. He ran his surgery in 1 area and rented out the other 3 rooms which quickly became a sought after abode for genteel women. Dr Hartnett died in August 1957 and his widow sold the building in 1958 to a tenant, Marie Josephine Heron.
Miss Heron was an early graduate from the Melbourne University in Music, was a staunch member of St Mary’s Church and became head of the Castlemaine library. It was during this time that the building became known locally as Herons. Miss Heron died in April 1975 but the four apartments continued to be occupied over the next 2 decades as a variety of government offices, medical rooms and also by the Education Department.

In October 1997 Elaine and John Campbell acquired the building with the intention of restoring and returning it to the original configuration for what is now Herons Fine Art Gallery.