History

The Maid and Magpie Hotel, an Adelaide landmark and one of the city’s oldest and most historic hotels, was first licensed on June 13th 1848 in an open paddock in a commanding position where Magill, Payneham and Fullarton Roads met North Terrace and Baliol Street.

The owner was George Heinrich Muller who leased it to landlord Johann Heinrich Fritz Beddies and his new wife Eleanor Dempsey.

Immediately the landlord began the long tradition of attracting patrons by providing various entertainments during the course of a year including brass bands, singing, fireworks, sporting events and shooting competitions as well as the usual food, drink and beds for the locals (who were mainly German immigrants), visitors and travellers.

The Maid was also a centre of communication, a touchstone for democracy, meeting place for various groups, occasional scene of coronial inquests and a riot once.

At one stage in the 1860’s the Maid boasted the following sporting pastimes: Quoits, Four Corners, Billiards, Bagatelle, Nine Pins, a gymnasium and a cricket ground.

Also in the 1860’s Louis Muller who was a bullock-driver, shepherd, stockrider, gold digger, explorer and manager of the most remote cattle station in the North bought the property.

In 1882 his success meant he was able to engage architects and have the second story added. In the late 1880’s regular foot races were held to attract custom until a large galvanized shed with an earthen floor and backless chairs known as the Star Theatre was erected to show films featuring the Wild West and the likes of Charlie Chaplin.

In the 1920’s and 30’s it was a common sight to see some 50 – 100 bikes parked at the front of the Maid belonging to the “Trammies” (tram workers) on their way home from the Hackney depot.

From the 1940’s until the late Seventies the Maid continued its role as the local meeting place and watering hole seeing out the end of the Six O’Clock swill with pubs closing at 6pm.

During the late Seventies, Eighties and early Nineties the Maid was continually upgraded and was a favoured source of good food, good company and a leading pub of its time.

In the Nineties it attracted crowds of young people from the rural areas then spent time with a children’s adventure playground under its roof continuing the long history of providing for patrons.

In 2005 one of Adelaide’s leading hotel families, the Faheys, purchased the Maid with a vision to once again make the Maid a leading destination providing a relaxed and attractive atmosphere, impeccable service, fine food and a feeling of wanting to come back again and again.