| The white horse dates back to the 1850s when a white horse statue adorned the front entrance of the region’s first hotel and two-storey building. The hotel’s appearance and condition did not change significantly until 1888 when the owner, William Graham, undertook extensive renovations. A craftsman was commissioned to make a wooden statue of a horse that was mounted on the porchway over the hotel’s entrance. One story speculates that Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) cabinet-maker David Clarke carved the horse. Another was that William Graham’s wife, Anna, commissioned a visiting French artist for the centennial international exhibition. Anecdotal evidence suggests the horse was carved on local resident Thomas Linsley’s dining room table. Disaster struck in 1895 when a fire broke out in the billiard room on the hotel’s east side and spread through the building. The hotel was almost totally destroyed, except for the bar and front entrance. And what of the white horse? The Box Hill Reporter, in its 29 March 1895 issue, commented: There it stood the morning after the fire over the entrance door to the bar, surrounded by the ruins, without (apparently) the marks of the fire on it, ready, no doubt, to grace another edifice erected on the lines of our more modern hotels. Fortunately the hotel was insured — the building for £1500, the furniture for £625 — and was quickly rebuilt, this time as a one-storey structure. Today, a memorial stands on the former hotel site and the white horse symbolises the City's and Box Hill Institute's identity. Box Hill Institute has adopted the white horse within its logo to symbolise longevity, history and prosperity. |
