A landmark which provided beds and booze for more than 100 of Albany’s 200 years was the much-loved Esplanade Hotel.

It is remembered now probably with even more affection in its absence, due to the fact there has been little movement on its replacement for almost two decades.

It was torn down in January 2007 after being the centrepiece of Middleton Beach life for a century in its various guises, surviving the resistance of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and a massive fire.

Amid the iconic, picture postcard image of the town, it was torn down and rebuilt more than once and bounced back better than ever on each occasion except when it faced the bulldozers for that final time and checked out, it seems, for good.

The site lay bare for years, the fence surrounding it became festooned with sports socks in a novel protest, and although there are now the relatively new Duettes on part of the land, the promised hotel has never materialised.

The Esplanade was originally a boarding house called the Middleton Beach Guest House, but it was not until Charles Patterson bought the premises that a liquor licence was secured and the WCTU’s objections were overruled.

That, plus a new road linking the town site to the beach, gave people easy access to the sea, a bed and a drink and that proved a recipe for success when the hotel was reopened on July 7, 1898.

The centre of Albany’s social scene, just 10 years later it was doom and gloom as a fire razed the timber building to the ground, although luckily no one was hurt.

The blaze was said to have originated in a back room and while arson was suspected, it was never proved.

It was gold miner Isaac Matson who rebuilt the hotel in brick, though it took three years for the building to open after town planners insisted he reconfigure the balconies.

The Advertiser at the time hailed the new building, which was completed in 1911, as providing a “wondrous change”.

Mr Matson, who owned swathes of land around the town, installed contemporary amenities like a septic system, electric lighting, hot water and telephones and also managed several regulatory hurdles, frequently paying fines for opening on Sundays.

The next chapter came by order of the Federal Government, as American sailors were billeted at the hotel during World War II and Mr Matson and his family moved out to a house in town.

When he returned to the building, he discovered the sailors had not been perfect guests and he was forced to replace doors and clean it from top to bottom.

Without compensation for the years of lost business or the repairs he had to make, his woe was compounded when the pine trees which currently line the beach were planted.

He complained vehemently against them, saying they would ultimately strip visitors of a sea view.

The next owner was the Swan Brewery, which purchased the property in 1964 and promptly knocked it down, replacing it with a 20-room property before millionaire Paul Terry bought it and brought in the bulldozers again.

He constructed the final version of the hotel before his tragic death in a helicopter crash in 1993.

The land was subsequently bought by a Singaporean company and the hotel pulled down again, with the global financial crisis ensuring there was to be no quick regeneration.

The hotel closed its doors on January 5, 2007, with demolition starting soon after.

The State Government eventually bought the land and subsequently found a buyer for the site and the land across the road from the original hotel.

While current owner Ausglobal’s plans are for an eight-storey structure featuring accommodation of about 66 rooms or suites, they have stalled because of ever-increasing construction costs.

Deadlines to start building have been set and passed many times over.

The Esplanade Hotel, for so long a hub of the Albany social scene, has become just a memory for generations of locals and visitors.

After a turbulent century of demolition and renewal, it seems time has been called.

And only the ladies of the WCTU will be happy about that.