Palm and Pawn Hotel was originally called the North Wagga Wagga Hotel. It was constructed in Junee Road (later Hampden Avenue) by James Clarke, an experienced blacksmith. James had learnt his trade in Gundagai and then worked for Wagga Wagga blacksmiths, William Blake and then Ned Stidworthy, before he went into business on his own account opposite the Australian Hotel in Wagga. In 1864, he married Sarah Robins. By 1885, he owned a blacksmith’s business in North Wagga Wagga and then opened the North Wagga Wagga Hotel on the same site. After some delay his application for a publican’s license was granted on 14 October 1885. As well as the main building, there was a four-roomed detached timber cottage (colonial pine) at the rear of the hotel. It was lined with hessian and papered over and used as bedrooms. Access to each room was through a door which faced a verandah. This building was destroyed by fire on 5 April 1897.
The hotel was very popular venue for political meetings, for example, for selecting candidates for the North Ward of the Wagga Borough Council or to hear addresses of candidates for parliament or to protest against Council activities that were unfair for North Wagga residents such as the imposing of a lighting rate to North Wagga residents although they had no lights apart from one on the north side of the Hampden Bridge. Sporting teams and other groups also used the hotel for meetings and for other business and community events.
Various members of the Clarke family managed the hotel until 1908. In 1910, James transferred the licence to his son-in-law, John Clout and after John died, his widow, Annie Clout, held the licence for a short period until it was transferred to James Parry in 1916. By June 1920 there were six bedrooms, two parlours, a dining room, a bar and a kitchen. At the end of May 1922, James Hand became the new licensee and made many improvements and additions including a verandah. By 1928 there were eleven bedrooms, three parlours and a bar which was just over four metres long. After James Hand died on 9 July 1933, his widow, Barbara was licensee for three years until her brother, Herbert Austin Leaver, took over and remained the license for thirteen years until his death on 7 August 1949. The hotel’s name was changed to ‘Leavers’ on 14 March 1950.
The most innovative publican was John Payten. Born in Sydney, John spent his early life travelling the world with parents who were representatives of British Tobacco Co. They lived in Greece, India and Germany before he went to boarding school in England. In 1932 he was a law clerk in Sydney until he joined the army and served in the Middle East and Syria in 2/25 Field Regiment with Sir Roden Cutler. He was then stationed in Sydney as instructor then joined Commonwealth Security, learned Italian and became an interpreter.
In March 1952, the license was transferred to John Payten who added a beer garden which could accommodate eighty people. It featured several tall palm trees, poplars and other trees and bright yellow and green tables and chairs among the trees, built with the assistance of many local residents. It was officially opened by Bill Dunne, then the Mayor of Wagga Wagga on 31 August 1952. An orchestra with three or four pieces performed live, three afternoons a week and entertained until 10 o’clock (closing time).
On 16 June 1953, John and his wife Margaret Lillian Payten (joint tenants) changed the name to the Palm and Pawn in honour of the palm trees in the beer garden and the chess set which John, an avid chess player, always had on display in the bar. It had come from Germany (Saxony) and was quite unique. The rooks featured a Maltese Cross while the Knights and Bishops featured unicorns. The kings and queens featured minarets and could be unscrewed down to six pieces for the kings and five for the queens. The black pieces were carved from ebony and the white pieces from Ivory. A shield in the tradition of old English Inns’ signs was hung under the archway leading into the hotel. It featured a palm tree with the sun’s rays zig zagging behind it at the top of the shield and a chess pawn based on John’s own chess set (which was two hundred years old) to represent a working man.
Not long after John Payten took over, North Wagga was flooded. The hotel remained open although opening hours were reduced, a cow bell being rung to alert customers when the bar was open. Soon more alterations were made to the hotel including a new lounge and servery bar, new toilets for the bar and two for upstairs. The area that had been flooded was concreted. For four years he let the hotel to Albert Frederic Catts while he lived in Sydney but he returned and took up the license again on 29 September 1959.
