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Fee and Me
History
Morton House at 190 Charles Street is the best known
of the secular buildings that face Prince's Square.
It appears as quite a large L-shaped structure on Smythe's
1835 map. George Fuller remembers it as "a two
storey brick building at the corner, now known as Norton
(sic) House, [it] was a lady's school. The school is
likely to have been conducted by Mrs Hudson who advertised
her school at St John's Square in April 1841. She employed
a former "governess in Colonel Arthur's family
" and "a highly respectable young lady, recently
arrived from England to supervise the junior classes".
In January 1845 she advised of the removal of her establishment
for young ladies from St John's Square to the house
lately occupied by J.C. Underwood, also in Charles Street.
The year is significant because St John's Hospital opened
in what is now known as Morton House on 1 September
1845.
St John's Hospital was a self supporting hospital and
dispensary managed by a committee of well-known residents.
It was modelled on St Mary's Hospital in Hobart Town.
medical officers, Drs W.R Pugh and James Grant, gave
their services free, and income was to be derived from
subscriptions and donations from the public and payments
made by members. A single person paid threepence a week
paid monthly in advance, and married people, including
children, sixpence a week, also paid monthly in advance.
Separate rooms could be obtained 'at but little more
expense,' and patients were attended at their own homes
if necessary.
Drs Pugh and Grant did not have far to walk to the hospital.
Dr Pugh lived a short block away, on the corner of Frederick
and St John Streets, and Dr Grant in Elizabeth Street,
above St John Street. Many of the drugs used in their
dispensary the two doctors prepared themselves in the
laboratory attached to Dr Pugh's house from plants grown
for the purpose in his garden. St John's Hospital earned
its place in our history books when on 7 June 1847 when
Dr Pugh performed the first successful operation using
anaesthetics in the Southern Hemisphere.
Morton House now houses one of Launceston's finest restaurants,
Fee & Me. After a great deal of restoration and
renovation, the restaurant was opened to the public
on 29th of November 1991. Since opening, the restaurant
has been nominated for, and received many awards for
the quality of its food, service, and wine list.
AWARDS |
