FORMER BDINBURUGH BOOT AND SHOE EMPORIUM

 The area is first mapped as allotment 4 of Section E in detail in the 1857 Revised Town Plan of Block E. F. H. Although the site was likely occupied by 1854, the first known occupants were Gibson and Stewart, the Edinburgh Boot Emporium. The premises went through three stages of development, beginning as a single-story timber structure, being rebuilt in 1862. The later nineteenth century comprises unknown commercial occupation, however structures are still present on the 1923 Ballarat Sewerage Plan showing the north end of the site covered with timber auxiliary buildings. 

 The site is of historical and archaeological significance. 

 The site is of historical significance as the location of an early residence and shoe and boot mart during the years of the Victorian gold rush – one of the most significant rushes in world history. The later nineteenth century shows the development and decline of main road and the movement of the commercial centre to Sturt Street. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features that relate to the establishment of commercial operations in the gold rush, and other later 19th-century activities.