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HENRY WALTERS BOOT FACTORIES (PARAGON SHOES)
Other NameFactory Location38-50 REGENT STREET, and 35-49 LITTLE HODDLE STREET, RICHMOND, YARRA CITY LevelRecommended for Heritage Overlay |
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Statement of Significance
What is significant? In 1905 Walters moved from these premises, which continued to serve as a boot and then leather-good factory, and erected two gable-fronted factories next door at 38-44 Regent Street. That same year, Walters trademarked the 'Paragon' shoe brand. These two red-brick buildings have very similar detailing, including flat brick arches above the windows, and a distinctive gabled parapet with a round louvered vent. The building at Nos. 38-40 is two-storey, and that at 42-44 is three-storey. Walters expanded his factories to the rear with matching two-storey gabled factories to Little Hoddle Street. They differ in the use of concrete window and door lintels, typical of the interwar era. His original factory was also expanded in this period with a new wing at 41-47 Lt Hoddle Street. After Walters' death in 1930, the factories and the 'Paragon' name were acquired by the Davison family, who manufactured shoes until the 1970s. How it is significant? Why it is significant? The complex is of architectural significance as a good representation of the evolution of medium-scale industrial design from the 1880s to the interwar period. This includes the very plain 1883 factory at 46-50 Regent Street, with domestic-scaled details. The c1905-10 gable-fronted factories beside it are a more striking pair that adopt a decorative gable front, which was popular for medium-scale factories during the Edwardian period. The three factories at the rear, fronting Lt Hoddle Street, mimic the forms of the Regent Street factories for consistency, but with updated construction details (concrete lintels) in keeping with their later built date. (Criterion D)
The complex of former boot factories at 38-50 Regent Street and 35-47 Lt Hoddle Street, Richmond. The earliest building on the site, 46-50 Regent Street, was erected in 1883 as a boot factory for Prussian immigrant Henry Walters. It is a long, plain two-storey brick building with flat brick arches to the domestic-scaled windows. After Walters' occupancy, it became the Ludlow Brothers' Boot Factory, and in 1912, the Matear Brothers' Leathergoods Factory.
The factory complex is of local historical and architectural significance to the City of Yarra.
The factory complex is of historical significance generally as a tangible illustration of the evolution and expansion of the boot (and shoe) manufacturing industry in Richmond, which was the best known and documented industry in nineteenth-century Yarra. Specifically it illustrates the evolution of Henry Walters' boot manufacturing business over a period of 50 years, and the birth of the 'Paragon' shoe brand. After Walters' death in 1930, Alec Davison and his family continued to use the factory, making Paragon one of the most significant twentieth century Australian shoe retailers, and at one time the largest manufacturer of high quality of women's shoes in the country. (Criteria A & H)
Group
Manufacturing and Processing
Category
Factory/ Plant