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GOLDSACK & HARDY HARDWARE STORE (FORMER)

Other Name

Review

Location

1 STATION STREET, PAKENHAM, CARDINIA SHIRE

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?

The former Goldsack and then Hardy Hardware Store, constructed in 1953, at Nos.1 Station Street, Pakenham is significant. S ituated on part of the original Victorian Railway reservation, in the early twentieth century this reserve was the location of the Pakenham 'Auction Mart', an early commercial hub inthe town.By 1917 it was also associated with the building supply industry, as the headquarters of prominent early builders Stephenson & Bloomfield. In the 1920s it became the location of W. Goldsack's sawmill, one of the first if not the first in Pakenham. The Goldsack family developed an associated hardware business and in 1953 built the two-storey brick shop and residence on the corner. In 1954 the company was purchased by Trevor Hardy in association with Pigdon & Lardner, who closed the timber mill and significantly built-up the hardware business.

The corner building is brick faced, now painted. It is a complex shape made to fit the irregular site. The upper level is a rectangular structure parallel with Main Street, which is cut short where it meets the boundary on Station Street, and the splayed corner between the two streets. There is a toothed brick join in the wall of the upper floor where the corner section meets the other street facades. The tiled hipped roof is a standard shape over the rectangular section, while over the triangular section the ridge angles down where the two roof slopes meet, and there is a separate triangular section to accommodate the splayed corner, giving the whole roof a pyramidal appearance in views towards the corner. There is a small single storey section on the Station Street side, now the location of the doors. The upper floor windows, three on Main Street, and one on Station Street, are relatively small side-by-side pairs of double hung windows, while the splayed corner section is blank. The ground floor windows have all been lowered to the ground and new narrow shopwindows installed, but identify where the original windows were located as evidenced by the lintels visible above. The doors are also new. There is a cantilevered street verandah wrapping around the whole corner building.

Alterations and additions to the building are not significant.

How is it significant?

 The former Hardware Store at 1 Station Street, Pakenham is of local historical and aesthetic significance to Cardinia Shire.

Why is it significant?

 It is historically significant for its associations with the growth of the commercial centre of Pakenham in the post-war period. , and together with the 1960 extension reflects the growing demand for hardware in Pakenham. The 1953 brick two-storey shop and residence expresses the historical association of the site, since at least 1917, with the building supply industry, and together with the 1960 Station Street extension reflects the growing demand for hardware in Pakenham's post-war residential boom. It is a now rare remnant of the historical practice of having a joint residence and shop. With the nearby Pakenham Hotel, it is also now one of very few substantially intact Main Street commercial buildings. The building is also locally significant for its association with Mr T Hardy, former President of the Pakenham and then Victorian Chamber of Commerce, whose family is still associated with large Pakenham hardware businesses. Its small scale and central location is typical of early hardware stores and contrasts dramatically with the Hardy large hardware store complexes now situated far away from the traditional commercial centre of the town. (Criteria A, B, D)

It is of aesthetic significance as a rare surviving commercial building that is a relic of the 'country town' era of Pakenham's growth, and for its prominence in the townscape. Its acute-angle corner site is possibly the most visually prominent location in the old Main Street commercial area. While not of architectural significance, the site and relative size of the building is imposing, and its triangular form capped by a tile roof slanting down to the corner lending a pyramidal appearance, is distinctive. After the Pakenham Hotel, this was one of the early two-storey buildings in the town.(Criterion E)

Group

Retail and Wholesale

Category

Shop