Land title information for the section on which the Simmond's Boarding House stands begins with a Crown Grant to William Henry Hastedt in August 1875. When Hastedt died in 1880, Mary Gands inherited the land. Two years later, in 1882, Mary Gands sold the property to James Simmonds.
James Simmonds (also spelt as Simmons in some sources) was a prominent Dunstan citizen. He was born in Hobart in 1841 and trained as a cabinetmaker, before moving to the Australian gold fields. At the age of 21 he came to Invercargill, where he worked as a builder. Following this he mined at Wetherstons and Waitahuna before moving to the Dunstan area in 1866. At Alexandra he worked on the construction of the bridge across the Clutha River, opened in 1882. Simmonds also worked on, amongst other buildings, the Alexandra post office, police camp, and other government buildings at Clyde. Simmonds had considerable mining interests. He was one of the owners of the Last Chance Elevator Company that worked at Bald Hill Flat, the first elevator company in the district. He was an owner of the Vincent Goldmining Company of Gorge Creek, and the Shamrock Elevator Company of St. Bathans, and was involved in a number of community organisations. He was a member of the Alexandra Borough Council almost continuously for 23 years and was Mayor of Alexandra from 1880 to 1882, 1892 to 1894 and 1896 to 1897.
Simmond's Boarding House, with an adjacent General Store, was built in 1882, the same year the Alexandra Bridge was opened, out of stone left over from the bridge's construction. The general store traded from a single-storey timber building adjoining the Boarding House. Its prominent location next to the main road is a typical location of accommodation houses, which were important facilities for the travelling public, given the long distances and the extreme conditions of Central Otago.
James Simmonds leased the property he had built 'Samuel Simmonds the elder and Samuel Simmonds the younger term 11 years from 1st April 1893'. No doubt both Samuel Simmonds were related to James but the relationship is not specified. Research has not established what the business was called in these early years. The lease did not run its specified term as seven years later, in 1900, James Simmonds sold to his brother in law, James Hesson.
According to Stone's Directory, Hesson and sons are listed in 1903 as proprietors of the Temperance Hotel and Boarding House. They are also recorded as wholesale and retail merchants, with 'every description of farm produce' on sale, as well as 'A Large Stock of General groceries, Glassware, Crockery, Ironmongery, Fancy Goods, Tobacco, Cigars, Cigarettes, Pipes, Etc'. Advertised in Stone's Directory and illustrated with a photograph, the building can be seen with its ornate balustraded parapet running along both the single and two storied sections. The wooden store can also be seen to the left of the hotel building.
James Hesson then leased the store to his son William Hesson in 1904, while it seems that William's brother ran the boarding house operation with the financial backing from the wider family. There was an economic downturn in Alexandra in the early years of the twentieth century, with the slow decline in dredging returns, although it was hoped that the imminent arrival of the railway to Alexandra would provide a boost. William Hesson ran into financial trouble almost immediately, and by August 1905 had been declared bankrupt (his father having called in the bailiff). While they had managed to turn a profit for the first year, the returns were not viable, and his brother left the business.
William Hesson survived the crisis, and in 1915 purchased the property from James Hesson's estate, Ellen Hesson and James Simmonds being the beneficiaries of the estate.
William Hesson continued to own the business from 1915 until 1950. During the years of William Hesson's ownership, the name evidently changed to Alexandra Private Hotel and Alexandra Provision Store. Stone's Directory lists William, along with Mrs. K.W. Hesson, who was a confectioner and sold fancy goods. In 1950, William Hesson sold to R.E. Nauman Ltd. A year later, Nauman sold to Arthur and Agnes Legerwood , having converted the boarding house into motel accommodation and filled in the hotel's cellar beneath the building.
The Legerwoods converted the building back to a boarding house/guesthouse, naming it the Central Lodge Hotel. At about this time, c. 1950-1951, the old timber store was gutted by fire and replaced with a concrete building, but part of the original building remained in place behind the new concrete frontage.
In 1965 the business was sold again, with the new owners continuing the use as a guesthouse and the operation of the general store alongside. At the same time as the guesthouse accommodation continued, the room on the corner of the building, opening from the main doorway, was used as a shop for a number of years.
In 1972, the property was sold and converted for use as law offices.
In 2004 part of the building was again struck by fire, when arsonists attacked the timber section of the old general store in Limerick Street, destroying it. In 2008 Simmond's former Boarding House continues to be used as law offices.
