The photo was taken 26 years before the first motor car arrived in Tamworth. The year 1878 signalled some considerable economic expansion for the town with the much-anticipated arrival of the railway in West Tamworth.
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The following numbers shown in the photo provide information about the various buildings.
No. 7 - The Exchange Hotel, built by James Bryant in 1875 on the site now occupied by the Tudor Hotel. Alongside the hotel Bryant had a fenced cow paddock extending through to Brisbane St. Bryant sold the cow paddock to Aiken Bros, on which to build their store, later the location of Treloars Store. The hotel site was previously occupied by the office building of Tamworth's first solicitor, William Smith, demolished to make way for the hotel. The Exchange Hotel continued to operate until 1938 when the new owner, T.J.Treloar, extensively rebuilt it, renaming it the Tudor Hotel.
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No. 6 - Plenty of pharmacies in Tamworth today, but here we have our first pharmacy, that of David Goodwin, who was born in Scone and came to Tamworth in 1858 to open his chemist's shop. The location would be around today's Lifeline Shop. Goodwin exhibited some interesting curios in glass cases in his pharmacy at times, including a two-headed lamb, a four-legged chicken and a carpet snake. A keen horseman, it was said that a quite tall Goodwin could mount a horse by stepping over the saddle. He died from gastritis at the age of 49.
No. 5 - Around today's OPSM & Lowes businesses was the offices of H & F. Gordon Auctioneers. Gordon was a member of the first of 3 local Gun Clubs to be formed before the First World War. Later, in 1882 Gordon partnered with John Doyle to have built a 3-storey Stock & Station Agency, named the 'Wool Stores' in the vicinity of today's Target Store. Stockyards behind their later building extended through to Lower St (today's Kable Avenue), known locally as The Pastoral Yards.
No. 4 - Located around 329-339 Peel St, today's Atrium Arcade entrance & Suncorp, this substantial 2-storey building was erected by our most prolific early builder William Springthorpe Dowel, many of whose structures still stand (e.g. 1864 Munros Mill, 1866 Mechanics Institute, 1875 Calala Cottage, 1881 St Johns Church, 1884 Tamworth West Primary School, etc, etc). Such was his professional reputation, he was able to construct "speculation" buildings such as this impressive structure in 1875, with potential buyers soon surfacing. He designed this building for potential shops or residences. Son of a building contractor, soon after arriving in Tamworth in 1854, a young Dowel assisted in the construction of our first two-storeyed building, Tamworth Hotel No.1.
No. 3 - Situated around today's St George Bank location, this building had prior to 1878 been shared by Tailor Baron Myers and Watchmaker James Gay. Myers had become Tamworth's first resident Tailor in 1859, and was near the end of his business days when this photo was taken.
No. 2 - This building housed the separate offices of Solicitors Richard Dowe & John Patterson, Dowe on the Brisbane St side, Patterson on the Fitzroy St side. Although not a partnership, the pair continued in adjoining offices for 37 years. Their new single-storey building was constructed in 1877. Dowe was one of the early directors of the Tamworth Permanent Mutual Benefit & Building Society from 1878. Born in Maitland in 1847, Patterson arrived in Tamworth to set up his own legal practice in 1874, thence combining with Dowe. In the year this photo was taken Patterson built his 'Calrossy' homestead in Brisbane St, where Calrossy School now stands, noted at the time for having Tamworth's most magnificent garden/orchard.
No.1 - The Commercial Hotel, located where today's Target is situated, started life as the Tamworth Hotel in the 1850's, then being resumed by the government in 1862 as the Northern Police District headquarters. Following the latter's relocation in 1873, it resumed life as a hotel, being renamed the Commercial. Thomas King, previous licensee of the Royal Oak Hotel in Ebsworth Street, was the licensee when this photo was taken in 1878.
Just visible in this photo on the far side of the Commercial Hotel is the small Tamworth Examiner Office, our first newspaper, published weekly from 1859, here in its third location.
Further along Peel Street, beyond the scope of the photo, was the 1866 Post Office Hotel on the Fitzroy St corner.
Not quite as busy as Peel Street today! Although the Exchange Hotel seems to have some reasonable patronage. Or perhaps they're at the new Railway Station at West Tamworth, waiting to catch the train to Newcastle that they've so long waited for!
These local history articles appear in the Northern Daily Leader every Wednesday. Spread the word.
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Mike Cashman - Tamworth Historical Society
