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Shop (former Williams Newsagency), 89-93 Napier Street, ST ARNAUD

Other Name

Williams Newsagency

Location

89-93 Napier Street ST ARNAUD, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE

Level

Recommended for Heritage Overlay

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SD 172 - Shop - 'D & R

Statement of Significance

The D & R Discounts Store, 89-93 Napier Street, St. Arnaud, makes a significant architectural and visual contribution to the predominantly Victorian and Federation streetscape. This building also has significance as a predominantly intact example of interwar Free style design, especially denoted by its prominent parapet and corner tower. The store was originally built for W.R. Sloane in 1933/34, and the three shops were first occupied by a Mrs. Williams who operated a newsagency, Moran and Cato who ran a grocery store, and the Perry family, who operated a barber shop.

The D & R Discounts Store is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of an interwar Free style. These qualities include the single storey composition, and the dominant rendered parapet with unpainted brick piers, accentuated by a chamfered corner that is surmounted by a squat, unpainted brick tower with copper bellcast roof. Other intact qualities include the unpainted and rendered brick wall construction, sizeable cartouche on the corner tower, curved parapet pediments between smaller piers, rendered cappings on the piers, projecting brickwork forming a pattern on the parapet, cantilevering steel verandah with decorative pressed steel soffits, shopfronts with ingoes, metal framed windows with leadlight highlights, and the unpainted brick side wall with timber framed windows.

The D & R Discounts Store is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with W.R. Sloane, who had three shops built in 1933/34, replacing an earlier building owned by James Penberthy. The ownership associations of the store with the Sloane family stretched between 1933 and 1990s, and during that time it was used as a newsagents, grocers and barbers.

The D & R Discounts Store is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised by the St. Arnaud community as one of the purpose-built interwar commercial buildings in the town originally under the long-time ownership of the Sloane family.

Overall, the D & R Discounts Store is of LOCAL significance.

Group