CYCLOPEDIA OF NZ 1897

Wellington Province

Wellington:

Mrs. ORMSBEE and the Oriental Hotel

Page 663

Oriental Hotel [Mrs. Ormsbee, proprietress], Willis Street, Wellington. Telegraphic address, "Oriental, Wellington." The Oriental Hotel, which was originally known as the "Melbourne," was established nearly twenty years ago. It is a large iron building, three stories in height, and contains fifty rooms, of which at least some forty-two are bedrooms. Of the four large sitting-rooms, two are devoted to the use of ladies. The dining-room is on the ground floor, and is a really pretty apartment, splendidly lighted on three sides. Two large tables are placed down the middle of the room, and eight smaller ones ranged along the sides, the seating accommodation being sufficient for sixty-five persons. The Oriental Hotel has, under Mrs. Ormsbee's management, become noted for its excellent luncheon provided from 12 to 2 p.m. daily, at a cost of 1s. per head. More than 100 persons take advantage of this speciality every day. The accommodation for boarders and visitors may be characterised as perfect; and in nearly all the numerous bedrooms, which are all comfortably furnished, rich draperies are conspicuous. Night and day porters are kept alternatively on duty. There are two bath-rooms with hot and cold water supplied, and in addition to the rooms in the hotel, Mrs. Ormsbee has a comfortable cottage situated in Dixon Street, where there are five bedrooms. The proprietress of the "Oriental" is well-known in Wellington. She has had thirty years' experience in hotel-keeping, and was originally at the Prince of Wales Hotel at Wanganui, afterwards purchasing the Waitotara Hotel. She came to Wellington in 1886, and took over the Central Hotel, where she was very popular. Subsequently she occupied the Queen's Hotel on Lambton Quay for four years, and has been in her present place of business since 1893. Mrs. Ormsbee has made her shilling lunch a speciality in the various hotels which she has so successfully conducted in Wellington, and it is by no means less successful at the Oriental than it was in the previous houses.

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