273 Beach was once the change house for the large salt-water swimming pool of the Boule Rock Hotel. The hotel sat just to the west of the pool – so close that on hot days, daring kitchen staff would jump off the hotel veranda and into the pool to cool down.
A grand building with a panoramic view of the water, the 100-room Boule Rock Hotel was built in 1900 by William Astle and was run by the Astle family until it finally closed its doors in 1975, when developments in transport and changing trends in tourism meant that fewer people spent their summers in Metis.
As it was one of the few hotels remaining in Metis in the late 1960s, and as most people did not have a television in their home, the Boule Rock Hotel invited hotel guests and community members into the hotel living room on July 20, 1969 to watch the moon landing.