The former Union Stores Building is a heritage listed building located at 41–47 High Street on the corner with Henry Street in the

Fremantle West End Heritage area Fremantle West End Heritage area is a designated heritage precinct in Fremantle, Western Australia. The City of Fremantle nominated the area in 2014 for inclusion in the State Register of Heritage Places to the Heritage Council of Western Austr ...

. Construction of the building commenced in 1895 for prominent local merchant

John Wesley Bateman John Wesley Bateman (15 December 1824 – 15 April 1909) was a Fremantle, Western Australia merchant who was later President of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Life The son of silk merchant John Bateman (Australian settler), John Bateman, John ...

to house his growing hardware business. Bateman's business had occupied a building at the corner of

Mouat Street Mouat Street is a street in Fremantle, Western Australia. Historically, the name was often spelled as Mouatt Street. It is a one-way street, running from Phillimore Street in the north to Marine Terrace in the south. It runs parallel to and ...

and Croke Street for the previous 25 years before he decided to build larger premises at the present address. The new building designed by architects,

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gre ...

and Wilson, was built at a cost of £7,000 giving Bateman a more central location and more space. Built in the Federation Free Classical style the two storey building was constructed from brick and stone. The tuck pointed brick facade contains extensive decorative detailing indicative of the original four stores street frontage. On the rood parapet there are alternating segmented arched and triangular

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

s separated by stucco corinthian

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s and featured urns. The corner feature of the facade is an ornate shell pediment. The widely arched windows are spaced alternately with triangular topped casements separated with decorative stucco

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

s. The windows hold stained glass in the upper portion of the frame with regular glass panes below. The front of the building has tiled dado of patterned rectangular green and brown glazed tiles. Much of the facade has Queen Anne style architectural elements The building has frontage along High Street and a depth of along Henry Street. It was opened to the public in September 1896 offering hardware, houseware and grocery lines. In 1898 a fire started in W. J. Beisley's tobacco shop, on the ground floor of the Union Stores building causing about £200 of damage. In 2014 the council had some exterior renovations completed on the building's facade and roof including removal of paint and concrete, restoring lime and mortar as well as street frontage maintenance.

References

{{coord, 32, 03, 18.9, S, 115, 44, 39.6, E, region:AU-WA_type:landmark, display=title High Street, Fremantle Henry Street, Fremantle Heritage places in Fremantle 1895 establishments in Australia State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Fremantle

See also

References