Maitland city centre is a living museum.
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That’s the view of Maitland Historical Society member Val Rudkin, who has been researching the stories behind the city’s High Street buildings for the past three years.
She has been looking at the street one section at a time to study the prominent names, buildings and people that have captured her interest.
Born and raised in Lorn, Mrs Rudkin has always treasured her strong ties to the city.
One of her favourite sections of High Street stretches between Hills Chambers and Toyworld in the Heritage Mall.
“It used to be one long building and the original facade still stands,” she said.
“My research has focused on the old buildings, what has taken place there and the changes made over decades.
“It is important to record their history – if we don’t know about them, they are just buildings.”
It was originally the Wolfe, Gorrick and Co building, which was big business in Maitland in 1854, as merchants and importers of drapery, grocery and ironmongery.
A large three-storey building for stores was erected at the back of the building in 1866. It stood parallel to the river bank and High Street.
The ground floor was for unopened packages of general merchandise, the first floor for flour storage and the top floor for ironmogery and other goods.
The Mercury reported Wolfe and Gorrick celebrated the opening of their new ironmongery store in July 1879 by entertaining their employees at a garden ball and supper.
The area today includes Hills Chambers, erected in 1907 on the left of the building.