16 March 1959   Castle Hotel and William Maxwell

The Castle Hotel on South Road at Edwardstown, which was demolished in 1984, was licensed on the 16 March 1959. Looking at the vast expanse of car park and shopping centre which replaced it, it is difficult to imagine that at one time there was a large house, surrounded by trees, which was called 'Woodlands'. 

The house began as the modest dwelling of Alfred Weaver, who arrived in 1839, and additions were gradually made. When William Maxwell, a Scottish sculptor, took over the property in 1875 he decided to make it into some resemblance of a Scottish castle to remind him of home. Having a large family, more additions were made over the years and a tower and parapets adorned the large house.

His work as a sculptor was also being recognised and he was commissioned to complete the porch at the University and to design the figure of Industry which was to top the old Savings Bank building in Currie Street. His most notable work, and his labour of love, is the statue of Robert Burns on North Terrace. Maxwell was working on the statue of John McDouall Stuart, which is now in Victoria Square, when he died on the 20 July 1903, and it was finished by a Sydney sculptor.

Eric Gunton, Gracious Homes of Colonial Adelaide , 1983, p. 143.