Cleveland Hotel (former)

The former Cleveland Hotel dates to 1860 when it was built by Johnny Cassim, a former convict from Mauritius, and his first wife Mary. At the time they were managing Bigge’s hotel (Grand View Hotel) as a boarding house. The new hotel comprised bar, parlour, sitting rooms, bedrooms, storeroom, kitchen and servant’s room with verandahs front and back. Mary died in 1861. In 1864, the telegraph line to Dunwich, Amity and Moreton Island was laid near the hotel. John married Annie Rafter in 1868. The Cassims were well known and respected Cleveland identities and devout Catholics. The hotel served as a mass centre until the first Catholic Church was built in 1877. John Cassim died in 1884 and he was buried at Dunwich Cemetery next to Mary. His widow Annie continued to run the hotel until 1903. A subsequent lessee, Mr Black, built a jetty at the rear of the hotel in the 1920s where the boat to Dunwich berthed. By 1938 there were reports of the hotel’s impending demolition. However it survived and was converted into flats after WWII. The building was vacant from the 1960s until the late 1990s when it was restored and adapted for commercial enterprises.