Springvale Hotel, Princes Highway, Springvale, undated.

The name Springvale arose from a permanent water source for stock and travellers between Melbourne and Dandenong that was in the vicinity of the intersection of Dandenong and Centre/Police Roads. It was near the springs in the 1850s that the Spring Vale hotel was built alongside the newly surveyed route between Oakleigh and Dandenong. 

The hotel's proprietor chose that name because of the natural springs and his association with a place near the Bog of Allen in his native Ireland. It was expected that a village would spring up around the hotel but this did not eventuate until the primary school was opened at the top of the hill in 1867, and even then it never grew to its full potential at this location.

In 1886, land was subdivided and sold alongside a stopping place where Spring Vale Road and the Gippsland railway line (opened 1879) intersected. This land was nearly two kilometres south of the hotel and school on Princes Highway and it was here that the main Springvale township developed.

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