HERITAGE: TIMELESS WOLLONGONG
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The image shown this week is a very early photograph of a wooden building that once stood on the site where the Commonwealth Bank in Crown Street is located today.
I know the building was named the Cottage of Content and was located in this area and I am sure that the image shown is the actual building.
Firstly, James Scott, a 44-year-old Irishman, was granted a licence in April 1856 for what was then called the Settlers Inn on the corner of Crown and Keira streets.
It was reported in the court at the time of the application that the hotel was not a well-kept public house as drunken men were seen lying about.
On granting him a licence, the court hoped that Mr Scott would be a better caretaker.
But just two months after he was granted the licence, James Scott died. His widow, Margaret (nee McDonald) was left to run the hotel as well as care for her 10 children aged between two and 19 years.
In the Licensing Court in April 1857, Margaret Scott applied for a licence for another public house known as the Cottage of Content.
Seeing that she was widowed and already a licensee, the court granted her a second licence.
In April 1858, Margaret Scott reapplied for her licence for the Cottage of Content. At the same hearing, James Hetherington was granted a licence for the Settlers Arms.
The Scott family must have been living on the premises as in April 1861, Helen Hobbs, daughter of Mrs Scott, gave birth to her son at the hotel. In August 1864, Margaret Scott married builder Henry Thackaray.
Around 1871, Henry and Margaret Thackaray left the Cottage of Content as the building was taken over by J.Richards and Sons, who owned the Charcoal Tannery. They sold dressed hides, such as calf, yearling hides as well as leathers they called black harness, brown harness, bridle, and skins for bags and soles for shoes.
The business operated for another four years from the Crown Street premises before the Richards moved and sold their goods from Unanderra.
Phineas Beatus expanded his Unanderra mixed business, when his children were growing up, to open a shop in the old Cottage of Content.
He would have only operated until the mid-1890s when Mr Budge opened his butcher shop on the premises.
The final occupant of the old building was the Wollongong Co-operative Society.
This business came to an end at 5pm on Wednesday, September 25, 1912, after fire broke out in the old building. It only took one hour for the building to be reduced to ashes.
Though the fire brigade was prompt in attending, there were concerns for the remaining buildings on either side. It was determined the fire had started at the back of the premises. The books of the Co-operative Society were saved as they were not on the premises at the time.
The Guardian Insurance Company had the society’s assets insured for £3000, whilst the old building was only insured for £200. One important item saved was the A.G.A. shield, displayed in one of the windows and rescued by Ray Dean during the fire.
Information courtesy of Carol Herben OAM. Phone 0409832854 or email sycado6@bigpond.net.au