Corner Shop & Offices

Statement of Significance

• The place has aesthetic value for its remaining elements and form of the Inter War Stripped Classical style as applied to a small commercial premises.
• The place has historic value for its demonstration of the small retail businesses established during the Inter War years which served the local community.
• The place has historic value for its association with the development of South Perth in the Inter War years.
The place has social value for its continuity of function as a commercial premises since the late 1920s which is well known to the local community.

Physical Description

The Corner Shop/Office: 252 Mill Point Road is a commercial building located on the corner of Mill Point Road and Douglas Avenue, and is one of a group of shops clustered around this intersection. The main frontage to the shop overlooks Mill Point Road with an angled elevation overlooking the intersection and a return elevation along Douglas Avenue. A curved verandah wraps around the entire frontage.

The shop is of brick construction, painted with rendered parapet and displays Inter-War stripped classical influences in its remaining fabric. The parapet has been little altered but the shop frontage has neem subsequently altered to accommodate new occupiers.

The brickwork has been rendered and painted and the original shop windows have been replaced. Traditional double shop doors have been replaced with a single door. A sign covers the truncated angled wall and it unknown whether a window was originally incorporated into this wall.

History

This portion of South Perth was subdivided for residential development in 1912. At this time, the houses built in South Perth were centred around Mill Point, Mends Street and the South Perth Esplanade.

It was not until the Inter War period that South Perth was more densely settled. As one of the main roads in the district Suburban Road (Mill Point Road) was a logical site for commercial development and for a clustering of commercial premises to occur on these locations. This junction of Mill Point Road (formerly Suburban Road) and Douglas Avenue (formerly River Street) was one of these sites of clustered commercial development with the four shops typically offering a butcher, tea rooms, grocer and fruiterer in the mid 20th century.

From the readily available information this building was constructed c1924 and the first occupant was grocer Ernest William Waller. No detail of the owner or builder of these premises has been found in the current research. It was common practice at this time for small business operators to live in the premises behind the shop.

Ernest William Waller and Sydney Forrester Waller are recorded in the Electoral Rolls as living at these premises in 1925.

There were several occupants recorded living at these premises in the Post Office Directories in the following years. From 1928, the place is designated as being the premises for a wine, or wine and spirit merchant and until the mid 1930s the place was designated as 270 Suburban Road. The residents identified in the Post Office Directories until 1949 were:

1925-1926 Ernest Waller, grocer
1927 John D McDonald, grocer
1928-1934 May & Gilbert, grocer and wine merchants
1935-1937 Sydney T Hoare, grocer, wine and spirit merchants
1938 Andrew C Gerick, grocer, wine and spirit merchants
1939-1946 H. D. Smith, grocer, wine and spirit merchants
1947-1949 Cecil C. Allen, grocer

Although the premises were designated as being used only as a grocers in 1949 the place continued to have a long association with the sale of alcohol for in the second half of the 20th century it was a bottle shop known as ‘Mill Point Cellars’.

In 1989, the shop was converted for use as the office of McCamey Real Estate, and continues in that function today [2018]. In 1994, two storey alterations and additions were made to the building. Further modifications were made to the building in 2000. Aerial photographs indicate that the form and extent of the original shop and premises can still be determined although portion of the original residence, accessed from Douglas Avenue, has been demolished or incorporated into the two storey addition.

Integrity/Authenticity

moderate / Moderate

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.