Pigott's Building
| Pigott's Building | |
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Front of building from Ruthven Street, 2014
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| Location | 381-391 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°33′36″S 151°57′10″E / 27.56°S 151.9529°ECoordinates: 27°33′36″S 151°57′10″E / 27.56°S 151.9529°E |
| Design period | 1900 - 1914 (early 20th century) |
| Built | 1910 - 1956 |
| Architect | James Marks and Son |
| Official name: Pigott's Building, McDonnell and East, Piggott and Co | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600861 |
| Significant period | 1910s-1950s (fabric) 1902-1983 (historical use of site by Pigott & Co) |
| Significant components | basement / sub-floor, elevator, furniture/fittings |
 Location of Pigott's Building in Queensland
Pigott's Building (Australia)
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Pigott's Building is a heritage-listed commercial building and former department store at 381-391 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Toowoomba firm James Marks and Son, and built in 1910 as the principal store of the Pigott & Co. department store chain, replacing an earlier 1902 store on the site that had burned down in 1909. The store was extended in 1914, 1935, 1956, and again in the 1960s.
The Pigott & Co. department store was Toowoomba's largest retail store by the 1950s, and expanded into foodstuff sales and a coffee lounge after the purchase of two adjacent properties in the 1960s. Pigott & Co. was sold to the Brisbane-based chain McDonnell and East in 1983, and operated as a department store under that name until they vacated the site in 1990. As of February 2013, the building was occupied by discount furniture and bedding store Super A-Mart. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
This two storeyed brick store was erected in several stages, the first in 1909-10, for MD Pigott, a successful Toowoomba draper.
The first Pigott's store was established by Michael Daniel Pigott at South Brisbane in 1886 and was run in partnership with TC Beirne. After the dissolution of the partnership, the two Irishmen opened rival drapery stores in Fortitude Valley. In 1896, Pigott opened a branch store in Russell Street, Toowoomba, which, after the sale of the Valley store to James McWhirter, in 1898, became his principal store. Branches were also opened at Warwick and other Darling Downs towns.
In 1902, Pigott and Co moved to rented premises on the present Ruthven Street site and extensive alterations and additions costing some £2,000 were carried out by local architects J Marks and Son in 1908. Following the fire on 8 July 1909, which substantially destroyed the two storeyed building, Pigott's was rebuilt with double the floor space and the Ruthven Street facade reinstated. The works, again carried out by J Marks and Son, included two light wells sited beneath roof skylights at the back and front of the store as well as roof ventilators patented by Harry Marks.
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