The property at 172 Main Street, Lilydale (otherwise known as the Poon Kee’s Store(former)) is significant. The form, scale, setback and detailing of the substantial c.1890s Late Victorian commercial building is of local significance. Façade signage, ground floor fenestration and other later alterations and additions are not significant.
The Poon Kee’s Store (former) is of local historical and aesthetic significance to the township of Lilydale.
The former Poon Kee Store has high local significance as a 1890s two-storey brick shop/residence built for Robert Black, a prosperous district farmer as an investment, and run by Poon Kee for some years as a grocery, fruit shop and food store. The property has particular significance as an example of a local business run by a Chinese market gardener in a district where Chinese residents were extremely rare. It may have architectural significance as an example of the work of the Hyne family of the Lilydale Brick Company.
The Poon Kee’s Store (former) is historically significant to the township of Lilydale as a remnant example as a remnant example of a Late Victorian commercial premises from a key period of development and commerce in Lilydale, having continually operated from the site since approximately 1890. The store is also historically significant for its early migrant history, associated with Poon Kee who ran it as a grocers, fruit shop and food store.
(Criterion A)
The Poon Kee’s Store (former) is aesthetically significant as an intact Late Victorian shop. The physical elements contributing to the aesthetic significance of the site include the rectilinear form, setback, original fenestration to the first floor level, decorative parapet with moulded sill course and centred transverse projection, moulded level course with end consoles containing an incised texture, and original hipped roof form.
(Criterion E)
This two storey shop is one of a small number of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings that survive in Lilydale's main street. There are two separate shops on the ground floor, both with relatively recent shop fronts, presumably a complete change from the earlier store front. The ground floor shops are currently occupied by a Denture Clinic and Paint Right shop. The upper floor remains substantially intact, with three double-hung windows with moulded architraves. The building retains its original parapet detailing and the moulded string courses above the original verandah level. The face brickwork on the façade has been painted.
Physical Conditions: Good
Integrity: Altered
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