Edwin William Russell established the Plantation Hotel, which officially opened on 22 February 1955. The initial design by Paynter & Dixon, Sydney, had a functional square appearance and the final revised design included the addition of curves. The hotel was initially called the 'North Pacific Hotel' but the Licensing Court rejected this and the final approved name was 'The Plantation Hotel'.
The building of the Plantation was one of the signals of “a new dynamism” aimed at addressing accommodation shortages in Coffs Harbour (Coffs Harbour: Volume II, 1946-1964, by Neil Yeates, 1990, p. 140).
