page_title: Mark Foy (businessman)
section_title: The Hydro Majestic
hierarchical_section_title: Mark Foy (businessman) / The Hydro Majestic
caption_attribution_description: English: Advertisement for the Hydro Majestic, Medlow Bath, 1904
context_page_description: Mark Foy was a businessman who established the store called Mark Foy's in Sydney. He also opened the Hydro Majestic Hotel in the Blue Mountains, a hydropathic resort with Swiss doctors and spa water from Baden in Germany. In addition he was a keen sportsman with interests in rifle shooting, boxing, sailing and motor racing.
context_section_description: In July 1904 Mark Foy opened the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath. Several years previously he had bought the Belgravia Hotel and the residence of William Hargraves (the son of Edward Hargraves discoverer of gold in Australia). Between these he placed the domed concert and dance hall (called the casino) which he had shipped from Chicago. They were linked by buildings one of which was a long gallery which can be seen in the photo on the right. This was described in a newspaper article shortly before the hotel opened in the following terms.
  "The two main buildings are connected by a corridor 700ft long by 14ft in width, and over this are bedrooms 12ft by 12ft, and others 14ft by 14ft. The corridor itself will be used as a picture gallery. As its windows look out upon the Kanimbla Valley when the eyes grow tired of dwelling upon the artistic productions of the masters, they have but to glance out of the windows to feast upon one of the most magnificent sights that Nature has ever provided."
  The hotel had its own electricity plant, boiler and ice houses, sewerage plant, library, hotel shop, billiard room, grand dining room, art gallery and a telephone in every guest room. 
  The hydropathic therapies were not a success so Mark Foy changed the marketing of the hotel. From 1906 it was advertised as a luxury hotel for the rich and fashionable providing fine food and entertainment. It was patronised by many famous people. Dame Nellie Melba sang at the hotel a number of times as did English Opera singer Dame Clara Butt and Nellie Stewart.
  Australia's first Prime Minister Sir Edmund Barton actually died in the hotel in 1920. Other famous patrons were Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Rajah of Pudukkutai with his Australian-born wife, the former Molly Fink. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the hotel in his autobiographical travel book. He said.
  "We recuperated after our Brisbane tour by spending the next week at Medlow Bath, that little earthly paradise, which is the most restful spot we have found in our wanderings. It was built originally by Mr. Mark Foy, a successful draper of Sydney, and he is certainly a man of taste, for he has adorned it with a collection of prints and of paintings— hundreds of each— which would attract attention in any city, but which on a mountain top amid the wildest scenery give one the idea of an Arabian Nights palace. There was a passage some hundreds of yards long, which one has to traverse on the way to each meal, and there was a certain series of French prints, representing events of Byzantine history, which I found it difficult to pass, so that I was often a late comer. A very fair library is among the other attractions of this remarkable place."
  Mark Foy used two of his Daimlers to take his guests to Jenolan Caves and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his family went on one of these tours. A photo of this event is shown. Sir Arthur is in the back seat with his wife Jean.
  In 1922 there was a fire at the hotel and it destroyed the Belgravia hotel, the Belgravia Wing and the art gallery with its entire collection of pictures. These  were replaced with the art deco buildings which remain today.
  Mark Foy died in 1950 at the age of 85 and was buried in South Head Cemetery in Vaucluse.
caption: Advertisement for the Hydro Majestic shortly after it opened in 1904
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