Dandenong House Hotel, 50 Foster Street, Dandenong, 1911/1912

One notable historical inclusion to Dandenongs history came in 1911 when the Dandenong House, a majestic 40 room guest house with dining room, ground floor tea rooms and an underground kitchen, first opened on Foster Street near the station. The growing need for over night accommodation became obvious with the population swell brought on by market day.

James Fenton Andrews built on this site, incorrectly believing that the new cattle market would be directly across Foster Street, a large section on the corner of Foster, Thomas & Mason Streets, was earmarked as a Cattle yard reserve and this was incorrectly tipped to be the site of the new cattle market. It often housed livestock overnight, that arrived by rail, on its way to market the following morning. This section also remained relatively undeveloped along with the portion up to Walker St that together, became the site of the earliest Dandenong Agricultural Show grounds from 1872.

Unfortunately the building was destroyed by a fire in 1977. A portion of the land, now part of the station car park, at the rear of this property was sold in 1907 to enable the railways to dig a large trench and create a turn pike for railway engines to be turned around to point back toward Melbourne, They also included sheds to store the engines overnight. The turntable would later be replaced by the Southern Aurora hotel which would be replaced by the station carpark.

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