67 Spencer Street is the former head offices of the Victorian Railways

Victorian Railways

The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...

, located on Spencer Street

Spencer Street, Melbourne

Spencer Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is named for John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom....

, Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Today it is used as a hotel and apartments. It is of Renaissance

Neo-Renaissance

Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...

-Italianate

Italianate architecture

The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

 style and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register

Victorian Heritage Register

The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...

.

History

The building was opened in 1893 and was one of the larger buildings in the city, reflecting the 'boom' conditions of the period. In 1886, the Victorian Railway Commissioners, considering their existing timber offices were inadequate, determined to erect and a building that would provide a central location for various branch offices in the area. Designs were prepared by James Moore (engineer)

James Moore (engineer)

James Moore was an engineer responsible for the first steam railway to operate in Australia.James Moore C.E. was a nephew of Sir William Cubitt, under whom he was engaged on the South Eastern and Great Northern railways in Britain, and presumably learnt his trade there...

 formerly of the Hobsons Bay Railway Company, and a contract was signed in September 1888. Funds to £25,000 were allocated in the Loan Act of 1887 for the building, with subsequent allocations taking the total to £132,000 including furnishings. Originally to be built of bluestone

Bluestone

Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...

, due to high cost brickwork with stucco

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

 was used instead.

The building is of a shallow U shape, with a 420 feet (128 m) frontage onto Spencer Street. The siting was such that the building would not interfere with the Flinders Street Viaduct

Flinders Street Viaduct

The Flinders Street Viaduct is a railway bridge in Melbourne, Australia. Made up of six tracks of varying ages, it links Flinders Street Station to Southern Cross Station and forms the main link between the eastern and western parts of the Victorian rail network.The viaduct takes a twisted path,...

, which was yet to be built. The building is symmetrical in plan, with the Spencer Street facade divided into five bays. The central bay projects slightly, incorporating the main entrance with heavy banded rustication, and led into the main staircase, 50 ft by 60 ft (15.25 m by 18.28 m) and lit by three windows with the 'VR' insignia. Secondary entrances at each end of the building, and a central corridor ran the whole length of the building and wings. Originally consisting of a basement and three floors, the fourth floor added in 1912 and the attic in 1922. A number of statures graced the top of the building, but were removed in 1930 when they began to break up and were considered a danger to the passing public. By 1925 the VR magazine reported that the building was overcrowded, with some departments moved to the Newport Workshops

Newport Railway Workshops

The Newport Railway Workshops is a facility in the Melbourne suburb of Newport, Victoria, Australia, that builds, maintains and refurbishes railway rollingstock. It is located between the Williamstown and Werribee railway lines.-History:...

.

By the 1980s the Victorian Railways had broken up into the Ministry of Transport, the Metropolitan Transit Authority

Metropolitan Transit Authority (Victoria)

The Metropolitan Transit Authority was a State Government of Victoria owned corporate body that operated suburban passenger trains,trams and buses in Victoria, Australia. It was set up under Section 15 of the Transport Act 1983 and commenced operation on 1 July 1983...

, and the State Transport Authority

State Transport Authority (Victoria)

The State Transport Authority was a State Government of Victoria owned corporate body which operated country passenger and freight trains in Victoria, Australia. It was established under the Transport Act 1983, succeeding the Victorian Railways...

. In 1985 Transport House at 589 Collins Street

Collins Street, Melbourne

Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district and runs approximately east to west.It is notable as Melbourne's traditional main street and best known street, is often regarded as Australia's premier street, with some of the country's finest Victorian era buildings.The...

 was acquired and 67 Spencer Street was vacated. The Victorian Government sold the building by tender

Request for tender

A request for tender, commonly abbreviated to RFT, is a formal, structured invitation to suppliers for the supply of products or services. In the public sector, such a process may be required and determined in detail by law to ensure that such competition for the use of public money is open, fair...

in 1988 for $5.2 million, to a development company and a Japanese financier who proposed a 217 room hotel and 158 car parks, but the deal fell though when the Japanese financier pulled out.

In 1989 a buyer contracted to buy the building for $7.9 million, but again the contract fell though. The mortgage owner put the building to auction in September 1990 but no sale was made. It was not until 1998 that the present hotel and apartment complex was developed. As well as restoring the building, a swimming pool and multilevel carpark was built at the back.