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Spencers Building is a pair of heritage-listed warehouses at 45-47 and 49-51 Edward Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1889 to 1890 by Thomas Rees. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 August 1993. == History == The land at the site occupies part of allotments 4 and 5 of section 35 which were acquired respectively by James Donald in 1852 and the well-known Benjamin Cribb in 1854. Cribb and Donald co-operated in subdivision and resubdivision of the allotments with the land under study passing to William Hood in 1876. Hood was a principal of the firm Hood & Binnie whose iron foundry works were located at the site until 1888. In that year title to the land passed to Frances Sophia Jones wife of the Anglican clergyman Rev Thomas Jones who had accompanied Brisbane's first Anglican Bishop, Edward Tufnell on his arrival in 1860. It was unusual in those times for a married woman to have sole title to this kind of property, but Frances Jones probably did not have ultimate control over it. Until the Married Women's Property Act was introduced in Queensland in 1890, a husband was entitled to the income from such a property and could mortgage it without his wife's consent - unless her family had secured it to her through a trust. By May 1889 Frances Jones had mortgaged the property to a total of £5000, presumably to finance the erection of the building which Thomas Rees undertook during the year; FDG Stanley, former Queensland Colonial Architect, was the designer. Rees had also built the adjacent warehouse (South East Queensland Water Board Building) several years earlier.〔 The building was complete by early 1890 and in February Benjamin Brothers Ltd occupied the western section (Nos 49-51) - using it as a bulk store. The building was flooded in the March 1890 floods and a photo taken at the time shows a "To Let" sign advertising the eastern section. Leasing agent was the Queensland Trustees Executors Agency Co (QTEA), presumably acting for Frances Sophia Jones.〔 Two floods (1890 and 1893 Brisbane flood), low occupancy rates and a severely depressed economy no doubt contributed to the repossession of the building in 1894. In the same year QTEA was struck off the companies register. The vacancy rates of the 1890s were relieved somewhat around the turn of the century with the first of a series of long-term tenancies. Leonard Spencer, coach builder and ironmonger began a twenty-odd year occupancy of Nos 45-47 in 1903. Another enduring tenancy, that of Roche & Dahl leather merchants (Nos 49-51), began in 1911.〔 In 1913 ownership of the property was transferred to James Milne and James Raff of the machinery firm Smellie & Co, whose two business premises (Smellie's Building and Old Mineral House) were nearby. In the late 1920s or early 1930s Leonard Spencer built his own building, Spencer Chambers, at 53 Edward Street and moved out of Nos 45-47. His place was taken by John Mitchell Hamilton, tent manufacturer who eventually bought the entire building, with his son, in 1941. In the mid 1940s Jolly & Batchelor carried on the leather tradition at the building, buying out Roche & Dahl and moving into their premises. For many years, Jolly & Batchelor operated their business there; in 1964 they left the central city area for South Brisbane where they continue to provide materials and equipment to the leather trade and to the public. Another Spencer, a typewriter dealer, bought Nos 45-47 in 1978, but sold it to the present owners in 1987. The present owners of Nos 47-51 acquired the property in 1965.〔 By 2014, Nos 45-47 had been unoccupied for several years and was sold in September 2014 (needing refurbishment). 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「Spencers Building」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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