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Wiss Brothers Store is a heritage-listed shopping centre at 99 George Street, Kalbar, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1890 to 1909. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 October 1992. == History == This large timber store was erected in 1909 for Lionel Ainger Wiss of Wiss Bros, a prominent Engelsburg (Kalbar) general store and trading firm. It replaced a smaller store built in 1890.〔 LA Wiss had arrived in Queensland from Germany with his brothers Campbell and Alfred, c.1887. They were German-born sons of English parents. After a short time in northern Queensland, Alfred returned to England and Lionel and Campbell moved to Ipswich, where they worked for grocer W Siemon & Sons for about three years.〔 In mid-1890 the brothers acquired an acre of land at Engelsburg, in the heart of the Fassifern Scrub district, south of Ipswich, which had been settled in the 1870s by immigrant German farmers. At this time, the township of Engelsburg comprised a general store, two saddlers, a cabinetmaker and glazier, a hotel and store, a butcher's shop, timber yard and blacksmith. The Engelsburg State School had been established in 1885. There were two Lutheran churches in the district, a Baptist church, a Primitive Methodist church, a Catholic church, and a small Salvation Army meeting hall. Much of the brigalow scrub had been cleared, and the surrounding district was dotted with small farm selections of 60, 80 or 120 acres.〔 On their Engelsburg property, adjacent to Heinrich Welge's Fassifern Hotel on the principal road from Ipswich to the Fassifern head station, the Wiss brothers erected a small store and dwelling. In August 1890, Ipswich architect Henry Edmund Wyman called tenders for a store and dwelling to be erected at Engelsburg, and by September 1890, a store for Lionel Wiss was being constructed there.〔 Lionel married Danish immigrant Maria Elise Wiuff at Ipswich in late 1890, and in the same year joined Campbell in partnership as Wiss Bros, storekeepers, at Engelsburg. They established one of the most important businesses in the town, which was emerging as a district centre following the closer settlement of the Fassifern Scrub for dairying and agriculture. They provided a general store which not only sold a great variety of goods, but also traded farm produce, acted as agent for major farm equipment suppliers, and offered substantial credit, doing much to assist local farmers. As early as 1892, Wiss Bros were the local agents for the United, Fire and Marine Insurance Co., and from 1894 to 1897 held the Engelsburg postal receiving office, until construction of an official post office in 1897. Until the railway came to Kalbar in 1916, Wiss Bros transported local produce to the nearest railhead at Munbilla on behalf of the local farmers. The firm was a principal employer in the town, with 8 to 10 employees by the 1920s.〔 In 1903, their premises consisted of the small store and a separate dwelling fronting George Street, and bulk store and large stables at the rear. Lionel Wiss's property had been extended with the acquisition of an adjacent acre to the south in 1898, and a further adjoining 2 roods in 1901. Campbell Wiss had left the partnership by c.1904, but the name Wiss Bros was retained.〔 When the new store was erected in 1909, the original store was moved a little to the north in George Street, and operated for many years as Surawski's Fassifern Cafe. In the 1980s this building was shifted to the Cunningham Highway.〔 Lionel ('Daddy') Wiss was a highly respected local identity, who took a prominent role in the community and the local Methodist church. In 1910, he acquired 56 acres in the centre of Engelsburg. About half of this he subdivided in 1916 into residential allotments, thereby creating most of the western half of the town of Engelsburg (renamed Kalbar in 1916 when the railway reached the town).〔 Following Lionel Wiss's death in 1932, the business was managed by his family under the supervision of his daughter Adeline Wiss. In 1947 the business was sold to Holmes Bros, and remained a general store until 1966, when transferred to Chemical & Air Services Pty Ltd, who occupied the buildings for over twenty years.〔 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「Wiss Brothers Store」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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