The following article is reproduced by permission of Noel Withers and extracted from “Banyule City Council Spring Outdoors Programme 2008: Greensborough & the Plenty River Pioneer Trail With Dennis Ward & Noel Withers. A ramble from the lower part of town and along the river bank learning about historic sites and the pioneering families that settled there from 1840 onward.”
The Marble Hotel, Greensborough was located at the corner of Main St & Para Rd and is currently the site of Taco Bills.
The first licensed hotel in Greensborough and one of the earliest brick buildings was built by James Chapman in the early 1850’s as a hotel/lodging house to cater for wood carters and those trying their luck at the gold fields but served many functions over the years including post office, general store, public hall, butchers, bakers, surgery, private dwelling and baby health care centre.
It got its name due to its white washed exterior and the building was said to be haunted by an Indian hawker who was murdered on the site and is believed to be buried in the Greensborough cemetery.
At times patrons to the hotel unable to ford the river and with time on their hands would be the cause of many a disturbance and made it a place to be avoided by residents of the town.
Susan Chapman stated in 1856, “I was in my husbands licensed house in Greensborough when the defendant came in and had some half & half, he wanted a bottle of rum on credit and on my refusal he used very foul and abusive language “You bugger I’ll choke you” and went outside and took off his coat and went around to the back of the house and made a row there.”
The building remained standing through till at least the 1950s according to a photograph on the Greensborough Historical Society blog
