P.B. Curtain & Company's Woolstore, later part Sunshine Harvester building complex, also Dead Letter Office?, 666-668 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
P.B. Curtain & Company's Woolstore, later part Sunshine Harvester building complex, also Dead Letter Office?, 666-668 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 558316 4
Level of description:
Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Graphic materialsTextual material
Part of:
Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
General notes:
RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2024:__________________________________________________DATE: 1878;ASSOCIATIONS: Joseph Shelton; Shelton Trust; W R Synott;DESIGNER: Flanagan, John;BUILDER: Martin & PeacockPeriod: Early VictorianNotable features 1985: 1. Stone base. 2. Carriage way___________________________GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryHeralded after its construction, as a testimony to the commercial solidity of Melbourne's merchants, even in the depressed economy of the 1870s, this was P.B. Curtain & Company's wool broking warehouse, designed by John Flanagan and erected (at a cost of 12,000 pounds) by Martin & Peacock. The new stores were both close to the Spencer Street railway station and goods yards also in the thick of Melbourne's woolbroking firms.It consisted of a wool warehouse, with detached single-storey sheep skin and hide store at the rear, a large basement and a top-level show room where wool lay on exhibition, prior to auction and had maximum access to indirect natural light (south facing skylights).The front ground-level had a `spacious lobby', a suite of `lofty' offices, sample rooms and waiting areas, all fitted out with oak-grained partitioning. As well as the Kauri pine flooring, the auction room which lay beyond the office suite, was equipped with Kauri seating with a `very handsome' polished cedar rostrum. It was claimed that these were the only stores in Melbourne to allow under cover dispatch and delivery of wool into the warehouse, via the carriageway still existing on the west of the building.The architecture was described in 1879 as `Roman', the lower wall finish as Malmsbury basalt (axed and partly polished)) and the arched windows `...giving a bold and effective appearance at the front...' The entablature above, was dentilated and modillioned (now demolished) and the upper-level walls of cemented brickwork, with rusticated piers. The parapet detailing included a massive segment-arched pediment, central to the main facade.Typically the land was owned separately by Joseph Shelton and it was he who applied to build the warehouse, not Curtain. Neither was Curtain a tenant for very long, if at all; W R Synott taking possession soon after construction and remaining there into the late 1880s. Younghusband & Co. was both owner and occupier in the early 1900s and Fanny Stanley around the First War period.DescriptionAn evidently incomplete facade but, nevertheless, possessing fine ground level stone work and relatively distinctiveupper level stucco work. Ground level is in dressed deeply rusticated basalt, with quarry-faced blocks supporting the main arches. At the doorway a Ram's head stares balefully over the Doric order entrance portico with the unusual arch above it. The signs, `Sun, Grain and Fertiliser Drill,' `Horseworks and Chaffcutters,' `Sunrise, S.J. Disc Ploughs,' `H.V. McKay,' `The Sun Drill Hoe and Disc,' `Moulder Board and Disc,' `Sunray Disc Ploughs,' and `The Sunbeam Ploughs' in gold lettering, as advertisements for the produce within. Another faded sign says `Bourke Bond Free Stores,' next to the giant basalt arch which signals the carriageway through to the stores at the rear. The ground-level rustication is taken in a bold fashion up the piers that divide the upper facade. Pier window openings have unusual rounded corners at the first level and more typical segment-arched architraves adjoining pilasters at the uppermost level. Remnants of the main cornice survive.External IntegrityThe basement lights have been bricked up, the upper level cornice removed, some window joinery replaced with steel in the western part of the first level and sympathetic lobby doors replace the originals.StreetscapeThe earliest part of a notable mainly Edwardian warehouse streetscape.SignificanceArchitecturally debased by the parapet removal, the remaining internal and external fabric are surprisingly intact, retaining the covered carriageway claimed as the first of its type in Melbourne. Historically it exemplifies its use and period, representing the custom-built wool warehouses (undercover delivery, natural lighting, custom flooring, auction rooms) of Melbourne's west end, most of which have been demolished (Asmic warehouse). It is also the earliest part of a visually cohesive 19th and early 20th century warehouse streetscape.___________________________GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites source 84 Lawrie Wilson & Associates, 1977. HistoricBuildings Preservation Council Report onCBD Block No 6 Dec 1977, page 31___________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE):Illustrated Australian News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1876 - 1889) Mon 12 May 1879 Page 75 MESSRS. P. B. CURTAIN CO'S WOOL WAREHOUSES.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60095730?searchTerm=new%20warehouse%20%22Bourke%20Street%22%20West%20FlanaganMESSRS. P. B. CURTAIN AND CO'S WOOL WAREHOUSES.Notwithstanding the general trade depression, merchants in Melbourne are always pre pared to spend their capital freely in extending the accommodation and capabilities of their business premises whenever the necessity exists, and we may safely say that in this respect there, is no other community more earnest and thorough-going in its national or commercial undertakings. Our illustration represents the warehouses recently erected at the west end of Bourke-street for the firm of Messrs. P. B. Curtain and Co., wool brokers, who. have heretofore carried on business in Flinders-lane, and whose advancing trade re- quired larger premises than those they have ' occupied. The buildings under notice are in every way most suitably for the purposes of the occupants being situated near Spencer- street, close to the Victorian railways, and also are most convenient for those, engaged in the buying branches of the trade. They have a frontage of 66 feet to Bourke-street, facing south, with a depth of 314 feet, being the .full length from one street to the next, with a passage right through 12 feet wide. The buildings consist of a warehouse for wool, and the stores at rear for sheepskins, hides, tallow, &c.The front elevation which is in the Roman style of architecture, is 70 feet high, and up to the level of the first floor is constructed wholly of Malmsbury blue-stone, patent-axed and partly polished, with rusticated courses and semi-circular headed windows, giving, a bold and effective appearance to the front. The upper portion is of brick and cement, having rusticated plasters, the full height of the upper stories, capped by a dentilled and modillioned entablature. The basement of the main building comprises a spacious well-lighted cellar, 18 feet by 120 feet, with an asphalt floor. The first and second flats are lofty, well lighted and ventilated, the floors being laid with narrow Kauri pine boards. On the top flat is the showroom, in which the wool is exhibited by sample bales prior to being submitted to public auction. This room is remarkably well lighted, having a series of roofs, each of which secures the southern light on one side through patent rough glass, whilst the other side is elated and lined so as to prevent the entrance of the direct rays of the sun. The apartments on the ground floor are approached by a vestibule leading to a spacious lobby, which is surrounded by a suite of lofty offices, sample and waiting rooms, with grained oak and glass wainscot partitions, having glass louvre ventilators, and all elegantly fitted. Passing through the lobby a massive staircase is met leading to the auction room, which is furnished with Kauri pine seats and commanded by a. very handsome polished cedar, rostrum. The warehouses have all necessary appliances and are most compact arid complete buildings in every way for the display and sale of wool and other produce, and have the advantage of being the only wool warehouses in Melbourne where goods can be received and delivered under cover. At the rear, and quite apart from the main buildings, are the hide, tallow and skin stores, with every accommodation for that branch of the business. Messrs. P. B. Curtain and Co's new warehouses are a great ornament to the west-end of the city ; they have been most substantially erected, at a cost of £12,000; by Messrs. Martin and Peacock, contractors from the designs of Mr. John Flanagan architect, who supervised the erection throughout.’___________________________Lewis, M. Australian Architecture Index:73799 Shilton, Joseph Melbourne VIC Warehouses Martin & Peacock - 141 William St 1878 03 5 7527 MCC registration no 7527 [Burchett Index]. Fee 3.10.0store73800 Shilton, Joseph Melbourne VIC Warehouses; alterations Martin & Peacock - 141 William St 1878 07 3 7670 -MCC registration no 7670 [Burchett Index]. Fee 3.10.0additions to store___________________________HERMESCity of Melbourne Notable Building- Ministry of Planning & Environment 1987A three-storey brick warehouse built in 1925 for the hardware and machinery merchants Eliza Tinsley and Co who had occupied the site since 1900. Prior to that it contained the Centennial Coffee Palace. The warehouse was designed by architect Robert Sloan and continued the tradition of large warehouses associated with agricultural machinery established in the western end of Bourke Street in the 1870s
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Research and reports
Record number:
1267465
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 558316 4 | 1 PDF : 1,167 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |