DESPITE sadness at the closure of the Orange Myer Store at the end of the year there has been some relief that the department store’s historical facade will remain.
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Orange and District Historical Society secretary Liz Edwards said the site has long been a commercial hub and she welcomed news the facade will remain.
“I think it’s really good, it would be really good if they could preserve the facade because of its long history and the importance of the Dalton store to Orange,” Ms Edwards said.
“It’s just been an integral part of the Summer Street landscape.”
Although the closure is the end of a chapter of Orange’s commercial history, the building upgrade and change to Harris Scarfe is in keeping with the site’s history since James Dalton junior opened a slab store with a bark roof near the post office in 1853.
Ms Edwards said as business prospered that store was replaced with larger buildings and underwent several expansions as gold mining took off in the region, pastoral areas opened up and the population grew.
“It goes back a long way, it was originally a much smaller building ... they called it Dalton Brothers’ because James’ brother Thomas came out as well,” Ms Edwards said.
“It was a general store and they sold everything from nails to clothes and food and drink.
“It was the store in Orange for many, many years and it’s sad that it’s going but it was probably inevitable.”
Ms Edwards said the slab building was replaced with a larger building on the same spot with a Dutch style gable.
Then came a large store with a ground floor and two upper storeys and a similar but larger building was built alongside, divided by a laneway for deliveries which was later filled in to create one massive department store.
“It was one of the biggest stores in the Central West,” Ms Edwards said.
Ms Edwards said James Dalton junior died in 1919 and the store continued following his death before changing multiple times to the Western Store, Grace Bros and Myer.
The 1849 date on the building facade was the date of the Daltons’ first store, which was built at Summer Hill near Lucknow.
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au
