tavern

This doesn't appear to be the same building as the others labeled Richardson's Tavern in this collection. The roofline and setting look different.

It appears to be the same fence though and the shutters look right. Perhaps it is just taken from the other side of the building.

kind of inspiring to see it in it's glory and not a neglected shell. Our family has been in the Land O Lakes for 4 generations now and I recall my grandmother stopping at the corner and going into the Ladies and Escorts for a beer then driving another 40 km to the cottage where there was only an ice box and ice house, no power or phones.

Jan, you are correct by saying the left sign read 'Ladies and Escorts'. We can barely see it in the enlarged photo. Thanks for the comment!

The sugar industry spurred Mossman's development. Two galvanized iron hotels were moved to Front Street from Craiglie in 1894, to become the Royal Hotel and Mossman Hotel, and the Queens Hotel was built in 1896. Mossman was linked to Port Douglas by a tramway in 1900 (sugar was shipped from Port Douglas from 1897 to 1958), and a tramway depot was located at the corner of Mill and Front Streets, near the Mossman Triangle. The town had five hotels by 1910, including the Exchange, Mossman, Royal, Post Office, and Queens. After the 1911 cyclone damaged buildings in both Mossman and Port Douglas, businesses and government buildings located at Port Douglas gravitated to Mossman. One of the early sugar suppliers to the Mossman Central Mill was Denis O'Brien, whose wife Teresa ran the first Exchange Hotel. O'Brien operated a hotel in Cooktown with Teresa from 1874, moved to Port Douglas in 1877, and opened the North Australian Hotel (now the Central Hotel). In 1893 O'Brien selected land near Mossman.[10] He grew sugar and was a director of the Mossman Central Mill, with his son Edward Joseph O'Brien (one of eight children) later serving as chairman of directors for many years. FW Buchanan built the first Exchange Hotel for the O'Brien's c. 1896, and Teresa O'Brien is listed in the 1897 Pugh's Almanac as running the Exchange Hotel in Mossman. In 1904 the eldest O'Brien daughter, Kate, married Daniel J Kirwan, who became the licensee of the hotel in 1905, the year Denis O'Brien died at his property "Finlayvale". The Exchange Hotel was originally one storey, but had a second storey by 16 March 1911 when a cyclone destroyed the upper floor. The hotel was repaired and continued to serve the town, despite being damaged again in a 1920 cyclone. Licensees of the hotel between 1914 and 1932 included EJ O'Brien, Sarah Ann Agnew, William Hyslop, Ellen Maud Petersen, Helena Norman McKenna, Teresa Nugent (nee O'Brien), and Ellen Constance O'Brien. Source: www.wikiwand.com/en/Exchange_Hotel,_Mossman#/History