History
In the 1850s, Whitehorse Road was built to be the primary route from Melbourne to Gippsland, a rather circuitous route which went via the Dandenong Ranges. The primary route to Gippsland from the CBD is now through Monash Freeway and the South Gippsland Highway.
The road, when first built, was named Three Chain Road, due to the road width being 66 yards (60 m) wide.
The traffic led to the establishment of a hotel in Box Hill named the White Horse hotel which had been named in respect to a horse belonging to Capt Elgar, a property owner in the area. It is this hotel of which the road obtained its name. However, the hotel was forced to shut its doors in 1921 when Box Hill became a dry area. A replica of the white horse from the roof of the hotel now stands in the median strip of Whitehorse Road, while the restored original is located in the Box Hill town hall.
Read more about this topic: Maroondah Highway
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)