Hope Valley is a suburb of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
in the
City of Tea Tree Gully
The City of Tea Tree Gully is a local council in the Australian state of South Australia, in the outer north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The major business district in the city is at Modbury, where Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, Modbury Hospital, ...
.
History
Hope Valley was more the result of random settlement than of actual town planning.
Jacob Pitman first purchased an section (Section 824) in 1839. In the early 1840s he sold a few allotments. One such allotment was purchased in 1841 by his friend
William Holden
William Franklin Holden (né Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film '' Stalag 17'' (1953) and the Pri ...
who set up a butcher's shop and general store. The site of this store was near the present corner of
Grand Junction and Valley Roads. Holden is credited with naming the area "''Hope Valley''" after returning home in 1842 to find that his house and business had burnt down in a
bushfire
A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...
, but rather than becoming despondent, he felt optimistic. Holden left the area in 1851 to pursue a career in journalism.
Hope Valley was mainly settled by
German emigrants
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...
escaping religious persecution. Holden spoke German and often acted as interpreter. This is seen as a reason many Germans moved to Hope Valley from
Klemzig approximately six kilometres away. In 1847 Hermann Friedrich Koch purchased of Section 824 and applied for a licence to open a public house – the ''Bremen Arms''. The ''Bremen Arms'' was the venue for much of the settlement's meetings in those early days, but since 1905 has been known simply as ''The Bremen''. The original rough stone building has since been encapsulated by a 1970s plain brick structure, which has been expanded on many occasions. Recent renovations have uncovered a curious
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style corner complete with a sea green round window. This has since been recovered, and the original stonework arches have been exposed and
re-pointed in 2010.
In 1849 William Holden formed a committee to establish a school in the area. One acre of land on
Grand Junction Road
Grand Junction Road is the longest east–west thoroughfare in the Adelaide metropolitan area, traversing through Adelaide's northern suburbs approximately 8 kilometres north of the Adelaide city centre.
Route
Travelling from the Port Adelaide ...
, west of the ''Bremen Arms'', was purchased. The land was then divided into three sections for: a schoolhouse, cemetery, and playground. Also in that year Hope Valley became part of the postal route from Adelaide to
Mount Torrens and Holden assumed the role of Postmaster.
In 1872 the earthworks that formed the
Hope Valley Reservoir
The Hope Valley Reservoir is a service reservoir in Hope Valley, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia.
When completed in 1873 it was the second reservoir constructed in Adelaide; it is the oldest still in use in South Austra ...
began, one of Adelaide's larger bodies of water.
Present day
Hope Valley has since been assimilated as a suburb of the City of Tea Tree Gully and Greater Metropolitan Adelaide. The entire area is now residential, focused around the Hope Valley Shopping Centre. The Valley Inn (formerly The Bremen Hotel)'s current incarnation stands on the same block. The institute still stands mostly as it was first built in 1921 and the old section of the cemetery still contains gravestones of some of the original settlers.
Just up the road from The Valley Inn, on the northern side of Grand Junction Road is
Torrens Valley Christian School, a local private non-denominational Christian school.
Further reading
*Auhl, Ian (1993) From Settlement to City – A History of the District of Tea Tree Gully 1836–1976, 1976–1993, City of Tea Tree Gully, Modbury South Australia.
References
{{coord, 34.843, S, 138.702, E, format=dms, type:city_region:AU-SA, display=title
Suburbs of Adelaide