Brain's Building, 118-122 Napier Street, ST ARNAUD

The two-storey building at 118-122 Napier Street is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of a commercial Federation Free style. These qualities include the two storey composition and the dominant, picturesque parapet roof form having stylised pediments and piers surmounted by stylised urns. Other intact qualities including the the projecting cornice located beneath the parapet and punctuated by decorative motifs on consoles, unpainted brick wall construction with cement dressing, decorative corner construction, incised rectangular signage panels which read: "Maurie McGrath Farm Machinery, Machinery", single, timber framed double hung windows with a white painted rendered band at sill level, broadly projecting bullnosed verandah clad in striped painted galvanised corrugated iron, cast iron verandah columns on bluestone pedestals and decorated with capital moulds, unusual brackets with trefoil motifs and other unusual ornate ironwork, shopfronts with large plate glass wall planes having nickel-plated frames surrounded by glazed tiles and highlights, together with ingoes and glazed doors, and the parapeted, unpainted brick rear wing fronting Jones Street.

The two-storey building at 118-122 Napier Street is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with commercial developments in St. Arnaud in the early 20th century and more particularly with Richard Brain, an hotelier and the son of an early settler in the district, from 1907. The building is also associated with millinery, dressmaking and costume making, as well as a bakery in the early years of the 20th century. It has further associations with the Furniture Store operated by the Brain family, from c.1919 until the mid-late 1970s and with the McGrath family from the mid-late 1970s until the present day. The building is also particularly associated with its designer, Ballarat based architect William G. Kell, who was born in St. Arnaud.

The two-storey building at 118-122 Napier Street is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised by the St. Arnaud community as an early and major 20th century commercial enterprise in the town owned first by the Brain family, early settlers in the district, and then by Maurie McGrath, a former Shire councillor.

Overall, the two-storey building at 118-122 Napier Street, St. Arnaud, is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Retail and Wholesale

Category

Other - Retail & Wholesale