This building is recognisably the same structure that appears in photographs of Gawler Street from the 1860s, which makes it one of the oldest shops in Mount Barker. Over the years several different kinds of enterprises have been launched here, meeting varying fortunes.

The first proprietor was Henry Hooper (1827-1861), who bought the site in 1851, aged 24.  Hooper had trained as a saddler, but he had an entrepreneurial spirit that saw him snap up a number of town blocks in Mount Barker as investments, including this one.  He also launched no fewer than three commercial enterprises in the early 1850s.  His saddlery and bulk grain store both operated out of the then-unfinished Presbyterian Church in Hutchinson Street (the “Scotch Church”), and his wine and spirit outlet also traded from there before moving to the cellar of Low’s Inn.

Unfortunately, Henry was a hopeless businessman, and within a few years he was out of his depth.  He panic-sold his Hutchinson Street businesses to his assistants – his brother-in-law Thomas Brakenridge in the store and Roderick McKenzie in the saddlery – because “there were so many debts outstanding, and [he] had too much business.” In 1857 he was declared insolvent and lost most of his assets, but this site was protected because it was in the name of his mother-in-law, Mary Brakenridge (1792-1887).  Surprisingly, he was granted a renewal of his General Storekeeper’s License in 1858 and it seems likely that he re-established himself here, running a general store with his wife Jane (née Brakenridge, 1826-1910) until his death three years later, at the age of 34.  Jane then moved her business up the road to 27 Gawler Street, but this store stayed in the possession of Mary Brakenridge until 1875, during which time she leased it out.

A photo taken c. 1866 (below) shows the shop displaying the title of William Wood & Co. Their advertisement of 28 July 1866 announced that

WOOD & CO., IMPORTERS of DRAPERY and CLOTHING, FANCY GOODS, &c., &c., respectfully draw the attention of CASH BUYERS in Mount Barker and surrounding districts to their new and extensive Stock of General Drapery, Clothing, Boots and Shoes, Glassware, Toys, Stationery, and Fancy Goods, almost the whole of which were imported to their express order, and are well suited to meet the requirements of the Coming season.

Ready-money Customers will find it to their advantage to make trial of the goods at the Mount Barker Stores, all articles being marked in plain figures at the lowest remunerative profit at WM. WOOD & CO.’S, Gawler-street, Mount Barker.

English emigrant William Wood (1811-1890) only ran the shop for a few months before handing it over to his son, William Alfred (“W.A.”) Wood (1844-1895).  W.A. settled in and in 1868 he married Emma Jane, the vivacious youngest daughter of Mount Barker Hotel publican John Rendall, but by 1871 he too was insolvent.  He and Emma moved to Norwood, where W.A. embarked on a new career as a “turf agent,” or bookmaker, and Emma opened a dance academy.  W.A. was briefly famous in 1882 when he won £7,000 backing South Australian long-shot “The Assyrian” in the Melbourne Cup, but his luck did not hold, and he was bankrupt again by 1887.  Nevertheless, somehow he was still able to take part in polo matches and ride with the Adelaide Hunt Club for most of the next decade until he died.

Meanwhile, in 1876 businessman Richard Andrews (1825-1905) purchased this site, which was used by his friend and fellow Baptist, Hartley Dixon.  At this stage Dixon was a homeopathic therapist and Andrews, after a career that had started in blacksmithing and mining, was a prosperous gentleman farmer.  Ten years later, Dixon would get embroiled in a largescale, speculative and economically disastrous silver mining venture near Broken Hill that flamed out after two years.  Richard Andrews’ obituary records that at about this time,

he lent about £6000 to a well-known professional man who was in financial difficulties through mining speculations, and as a result of the loss which followed Mr. Andrews was reduced to the necessity of again working for his living and followed his trade of a farrier.

Lest it should seem that this building is cursed, it also accommodated a series of businesses that were profitable and enduring.  In 1877 Richards sold to Alfred Sexton (1830-1911), an English bootmaker who had emigrated to Melbourne in 1852 aboard the Arrogant.  Deciding to join his brother John in Adelaide, he made the trip in a 90-ton schooner (coincidentally captained by Murdoch McKenzie, brother of saddler Roderick McKenzie, assistant to Henry Hooper, as mentioned above). After a stint at the Callington mines, Sexton moved to Mount Barker to open A. Sexton’s Boot and Shoe Warehouse, which became a feature of the town for twenty years until it was sold as a going concern to bootmaker and hairdresser A.B. Fry in 1898.

In 1905 the building was acquired by the company T. Paltridge & Sons Ltd., which ran the tannery between 1854 and 1975 on the site now occupied by Mount Barker Central Shopping Centre (see https://mtbarkernationaltrust.org.au/history-post/paltridge-family/).  In 1915 they part-leased it to H.B Chapman, licensed land broker of Mount Barker.  Chapman shared the office space with the Savings Bank of South Australia, which would not have a purpose-built branch at Mount Barker until 1940 (see 12-14 Gawler St). During World War I the offices also housed “the headquarters of the military of the district.”  H.B. Chapman purchased the building outright in 1928, and the company still owns and occupies the site today, partially under the L.J. Hooker brand.

The first photo below shows Wm. Wood & Co., second building from right, c. 1866.  The second photo shows A. Sexton’s Boot and Shoe Warehouse, first building on the right, c. 1885. In the third picture H.B. Chapman and the Savings Bank of SA can be seen on the near right, c. 1930. (Click on photos to enlarge.)