The Commercial Hotel.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 185, 12 July 1883, Page 2

The Commercial Hotel.

The additions to the Commercial Hotel being now almost complete, a brief description may not be out of place. The total length of new frontage to ' Main-street is 35 feet, which gives a total frontage to thaf street of 105 feat, and with the 80 feet fronting the Square, a gross total frontage of 185 feet, which is, of course, the length of the promenade balcony. The new entrance (the private one) has a very excellent approach, there being a wide, spacious staircase, with lofty hall. This entrance is quite removed from the other portion of the house, and guests putting up at the Commercial need scarcely be aware but that they are located m a private house.^ The new entrance also makes an additional means of egress from the hotel, should a fire take place, m which respect it is now abundantly provided. Up stairs m the new portion of the hotel are two suites of rooms comfortable, cheerful apartments. Theie is also a bath room and other necessary conveniences, water being supplied from a large tank, which is filled from the roof, or from a force pump if necessary. The hotel comprises 20 bed-rooms on the upper storey, and four private sitting rooms, which represents as ample accommodation as any hotel north of Wellington. The work has- been executed under the professional supervision of Mr Larcomb, and the contractors, Messrs Smith and Marsh, have discharged their obligation to Mr Walkley's sausfkerion, m whose words , we may describe it as a "grand job." To the left of the front entrance, going m, is a particularly capacious sampleroom, measuring 27 x 27 feet, which will be m frequent demand by comm?r.i cial travellers. Two other sample-rooms are available m different parts of the hotel, so that the requirements of the numerous army of C.T.s who frequent the Commeroial will find that every requisite accommodation has been provided for their use. The finish of the new portion of the hotel is, if anything, superior to that m the older part, special attention having been devoted to the scrimming, papering, &c, the latter being of double thickness everywhere, giving a very smooth substantial surface. Host Walkley has now been about two yeara.in the Commercial, which, by excellent management, he has made a most popular hostelry, and one of the most valuable hotel properties on the West Coast. His rec°nt expenditure, which represents a very considerable outlay, wiil still further enhance the convenience and popularity, and consequently the property value of the Commercial, which can now rank as the best hotel m any inland town on the West Coast. Every imaginable requirement has been duly attended to, and so roomy is the interior that the passages, specially nhen lit up at night, have quite the appearance of a metropolitan house. We congratulate Mr Walkley on the substantial increase of business which has warranted the heavy expenditure entailed m the erection of the additions now completedi which, following the rule of supply and demand, may eventually lead to still further extension as time goes on.