|
Pigott's Building is a heritage-listed commercial building and former department store at 381-391 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Toowoomba firm James Marks and Son, and built in 1910 as the principal store of the Pigott & Co. department store chain, replacing an earlier 1902 store on the site that had burned down in 1909. The store was extended in 1914, 1935, 1956, and again in the 1960s. The Pigott & Co. department store was Toowoomba's largest retail store by the 1950s, and expanded into foodstuff sales and a coffee lounge after the purchase of two adjacent properties in the 1960s. Pigott & Co. was sold to the Brisbane-based chain McDonnell and East in 1983, and operated as a department store under that name until they vacated the site in 1990. As of February 2013, the building was occupied by discount furniture and bedding store Super A-Mart.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=391 Ruthven St )〕 It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.〔 == History == This two storeyed brick store was erected in several stages, the first in 1909-10, for MD Pigott, a successful Toowoomba draper.〔 The first Pigott's store was established by Michael Daniel Pigott at South Brisbane in 1886 and was run in partnership with TC Beirne. After the dissolution of the partnership, the two Irishmen opened rival drapery stores in Fortitude Valley. In 1896, Pigott opened a branch store in Russell Street, Toowoomba, which, after the sale of the Valley store to James McWhirter, in 1898, became his principal store. Branches were also opened at Warwick and other Darling Downs towns.〔 In 1902, Pigott and Co moved to rented premises on the present Ruthven Street site and extensive alterations and additions costing some £2,000 were carried out by local architects J Marks and Son in 1908. Following the fire on 8 July 1909, which substantially destroyed the two storeyed building, Pigott's was rebuilt with double the floor space and the Ruthven Street facade reinstated. The works, again carried out by J Marks and Son, included two light wells sited beneath roof skylights at the back and front of the store as well as roof ventilators patented by Harry Marks.〔 The site was purchased by Pigott and Co in 1914 and extensive additions by J Marks and Son were commenced. Three floors, connected by electric elevator, were added by contractor A Mayes to the southern side of the building enabling, on the ground floor, the extension of the manchester and dress departments, general office, and mail order department. The first floor contained the furniture department and tailoring and dress making work rooms; the smaller second floor was used as a bulk store room. A pneumatic cash cashier system, reputedly the first in Australia, and a complete sanitary system were installed.〔 In 1934 Pigott's acquired the adjoining block of land on Ruthven Street housing the Queen's Hotel. Part of the land was sold and on the remaining frontage to Ruthven Street was erected a two story addition with a new facade unifying the new work with the 1910/1914 building. The work was completed in 1936 at a cost of £16,000 included the installation of island windows and a Lamson pneumatic tube cash service. Architects were Brisbane firm, Hall and Phillips, who were prominent in department store design in the 1920s and 1930s, and builders Kell and Rigby.〔 By the 1950s the family business had become Toowoomba's largest retail store. Country clients remained a major part of the store's business with regular mail order catalogues published until this time. In 1950, interior remodelling was carried out and in 1956, Pigott's diamond jubilee year, a four storey extension costing some £100,000 was added to the rear of the building, allowing the department store to expand into new areas of merchandising.〔 In the 1960s, as part of a strategy to compete with changes in local retailing, Pigott's purchased the former Gordon Motors site, and later the adjoining Palmer's Garage, enabling the store to not only expand into other activities, such as the sale of foodstuffs and the opening of a coffee lounge but also giving access to Margaret Street, becoming Toowoomba's first three street store.〔 The store was leased in 1983 to McDonnell and East, who vacated it in 1990. The property was sold by Pigott and Co Pty Ltd in 1988.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pigott's Building」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|