
In December 1936, the finishing touches were being made to Mr Robert Kendall’s new business block. Designed and built by Mr E Patmore, the building was a two-storey brick building with a semi-glazed red tile roof. It consisted of two shops on the ground floor and two offices upstairs. The upstairs portion had been finished with bevel-faced bricks, red-toned to match the roof. The latest in plate glass show windows and maple and glass doors had been fitted, along with a cantilever awning with a Wunderlich ceiling. The occupiers of the downstairs shops were Mr W A Dan, draper and Mrs E Young’s ‘Golden Gate Café’ which was fitted with a large dining room, kitchen and two store rooms. Upstairs was occupied by Mr R Wilson an accountant and Mr David H J Hill, a dentist.1
Mr Robert Kendall was a tinsmith and plumber who in the early 1900s installed acetylene lighting in many Gloucester buildings including the School of Arts.2 In 1927, Kendall bought the property Section 2 Pt lot 3 in Church Street, on which was situated old wooden buildings.3 The buildings were demolished to make way for the new building finished in time for Christmas trading in 1936. In 1932 Kendall sold his well-established tinsmith business to Mr Eagleton and was, for a time, Director of the Electric Supply Company which gradually supplied electricity to all of the Gloucester region.4 Kendall sold his building in Church Street to the Gloucester Radio & Television Centre Pty Ltd in June 1960.5 Kendall died 7 years later aged 81 years.6 The Gloucester Radio & Television Centre Pty Ltd sold the building to Noel and Edith Sansom in April 1968.7
Author: Janine Roberts
References:
1 Gloucester Advocate, 8 December 1936, 2.
2 Gloucester Advocate, 10 October 1908, 8; Ancestry.com.au Australian electoral rolls 1932-1963; Sands Directories: Sydney and NSW 1932-3.
3 NSW LRS Book-No: 1499-703; Gloucester Advocate, 8 December 1936, 2.
4 Gloucester Advocate, 13 July 1945, 3; Gloucester Advocate, 6 May 1932.
5 NSW LRS Book-No: 2531-451.
6 NSW BDM, death index 42294/1967.
7 NSW LRS Book-No: 2883-130.