YOU can't help but notice the declining health of the grand old lady from the past when driving through Bulli.
 
The Denmark Hotel, "The Little House on the Hill", sits as a dejected monument to one of the region's entrepreneurial pioneers.
 
That should soon change with the announcement Wollongong City Council have approved a development application to restore the building as a boutique hotel.
 
The former pub was established by Danish immigrant Jents Peter Oluf Orvad in 1877 and this week Looking Back traces the building's history.
 
Jents Orvad served in the Danish Navy before immigrating to Australia with the fall of Denmark to Prussia in the 1864 war.
 
He arrived in Sydney in 1866 and by 1869 had made his way to Wollongong marrying Honorah Madden.
 
Taking the name of Peter, he first entered the hospitality trade purchasing the George's River punt and setting-up a cottage for meals and accommodation on its southern bank. Later, in 1873, he purchased a block of land three chains in length and 50 feet in breadth for 96 pounds in Bulli village leasing it to FW Edwards as a bakery.
 
The Dane established his first pub in Appin where he was granted a license in 1875. He moved to Bulli the following year gaining a inn keeper's license for his little weatherboard bakery building and giving it the sign of his mother-land.
 
The Denmark Hotel - The Little House on the Hill - was licensed on February 19 1877.

The Tourist Hotel in 1910

The inn was typical of the day with a tap room (public-bar), sitting room, and a couple of guest bedrooms besides Orvad's family quarters. It was small and cramped and the following year he added a single storey wing to the rear.
 
Orvad was host to former NSW Premier, Sir John Robertson in January 1879 and of the four inns at Bulli, The Denmark became one of the more respectable. Peter was said to have never served an alcoholic drink to a drunken man and kept a tight rein on operations at his pub.
 
Meetings were often held at his inn to advance the community. Deputations were formed to approach the government for a post and telegraph office for Bulli, a court house, a public reserve and road improvements.
 
Peter Orvad even stood for the parliamentary seat of Illawarra in 1880 but was convincibley defeated. He went-up against wealthy capitalist and owner of the Coalcliff Colliery, Alexander Stuart who would go on to become Premier of NSW.
 
But the Bulli publican continued working for the community through his active role in the Bulli Progress Association and government contracts repairing regional roads.
 
On the eve of the arrival of the government railway, Orvad had constructed large two storey additions to the front of his inn during 1886. The Denmark Hotel, with its belvedere window used to spot coaches on the mountain pass and steamers arriving at the jetty, was now an imposing building among the other timber business houses in Bulli.
 
Orvad, who was suffering tuberculosis, considered returning to his homeland in 1890 "now that Bismark is out of the way and Denmark not so fearful of further attacks of the German whale" it was reported. However his health was failing and he never fulfilled his dream. He died at The Denmark Hotel on November 27 1891 aged 48.
 
The local newspapers reported: "The late Mr Orvad was a useful public man in the Bulli end, and took a prominent part in all matters for the advancement of the place. During a long residence in Bulli he had acquired a competence, and his widow and family will therefore be comfortably provided for."
 
The name of the hotel was changed to the Tourist Hotel in 1896 and it remained licensed until June 30 1911 when a local option poll - held at State elections to reduce licensed premises within an electorate - forced the closure.
 
George Aston purchased the old Denmark from the Orvad estate and ran it as a boarding house from about 1913. Known as the Tourist Boarding House it remained in the family until the death of Maurice Bourke.
 
Frank Gervaise purchased The Denmark from the Bourke estate in July 1998 with intentions of transforming it into a boutique hotel.
 
Mr Gervaise, who is involved in the building trade, has finally overcome a tangle of red tape and has been granted approval to reinstate accommodation and a licensed restaurant in the building by Wollongong City Council.
 
It seems after more than 90 years The Denmark will return to the use in which it was intended - a house of hospitality.