374 Argyle Street

The first town blocks were sold in 1863 as the railway approached. Moss Vale station opened as Sutton Forest on 2 December 1867 and took the name Moss Vale in 1877. Trains brought passengers, trade and a much quicker route to Sydney for the district's farm produce.¹

The Moss Vale Hotel site at 340 Argyle Street was licensed in 1866. It became the Terminus Hotel around 1868 or 1869, then the Royal Hotel in 1880. The building has changed since those early days, but the pub remains on the same site.² A courthouse and police quarters followed near the station in 1880. They were demolished in 1915 when the railway yards expanded, and the present courthouse opened in January 1924.³

By then Argyle Street had become the town's busy civic and commercial strip. The exact age of 374 is still unknown, but its weatherboard section may be one of the few buildings left from that first burst of railway-led growth.¹¹⁵

Looking south along Argyle Street around 1900. 374 is the small weatherboard building immediately left of the former hall.

Behind the brick shopfront is a much older weatherboard house.⁹

The late nineteenth century is the best estimate for the original home. It has the modest scale and simple form of a Victorian or Edwardian worker's or middle-class cottage, with a high-pitched roof, verandah and straightforward timber joinery. Early directories describe private homes in this part of Argyle Street, although no original owner has yet been identified and later street renumbering may hide the house under another address.⁹¹⁸

Its present form tells the story clearly: a long weatherboard residence running back towards Clarence Street, with a parapeted brick commercial frontage added later on Argyle Street. Distant photographs from around 1900 appear to show at least part of the weatherboard house before the brick front was built.⁹

Weatherboard itself does not date the house. The material was used in Australia from the early colonial period: a convict-built weatherboard hut stood at present-day Wentworth Falls in 1814, and an 1858 survey described numerous Sydney cottages built of weatherboard. It therefore comfortably predates 1900 and remained in use long afterwards; the estimate above rests on the photographs and property evidence, not the cladding alone.⁴³

Today, Lot 31 DP 619860 covers 514.2 square metres between its two addresses, 374 Argyle Street and 44 Clarence Street. Property records describe 5 bedrooms, 1 study, 1 bank vault, a large storage attic, a kitchen and kitchenette, two bathrooms and four parking spaces, with about 100 square metres of commercial floor area at the front and another 100 or so for the residence behind. The fenced block has dual street access, with the car park accessible from Clarence Street, and a long-established live-and-work layout. Its statutory land value, excluding buildings, rose from $385,000 at 1 July 2021 to $689,000 at 1 July 2025—about 79 per cent—but these figures are for rating and taxing purposes rather than market valuations.⁹⁵²

The property sits in the centre of town, metres from the courthouse, the pub, cafes, several supermarkets, the post office, medical centres and more. Its dual frontage allowed goods, horses, vehicles and residents to reach the rear without passing through the Argyle Street business rooms.⁹³⁸

The Argyle frontage has a recessed central entrance, broad windows, an awning and a flat corrugated-metal roof concealed behind the parapet. The older house continues behind it beneath pitched roofs. The site has been described in heritage work as part of the collective character of the Argyle Street commercial precinct rather than as a separately listed State Heritage item. The 2021 land-value record used a Local Centre zoning classification for valuation, consistent with the mixed business and residential pattern seen here for generations.¹⁵⁵²

Different heritage summaries have grouped 374 with 372 Argyle Street and variously called it a neutral or contributory Interwar shop in the Argyle Street North or South conservation area. The labels are inconsistent, but the recurring recommendation is to retain the building's scale, parapet, recessed entrance, materials and alignment as part of the older main-street streetscape.¹⁵

374 is immediately left of the hall, behind the striped awning and white picket fence.

Early maps do not call the property 374 Argyle Street. They show estates, allotments and larger parcels laid out before today's street numbers and deposited plans. One supplied research note suggests the cottage may have formed part of the early Throsby Park Estate subdivision, although that connection has not yet been tied to the modern title.⁴

The modern property is Lot 31 DP 619860. An NSW LRS Prior Title Search for the current title returns 14862-86 (Volume 14862, Folio 86), providing the next confirmed title reference to retrieve. It does not by itself identify an earlier owner. The deposited-plan number may reflect a later title conversion or boundary survey around the early 1980s, possibly connected with the unusual rear access. Tracing the property further back means following old boundaries and owners rather than searching only for the current address.⁹⁵¹

The State Library's relevant Moss Vale plan groups include Z/TP/M5/7, 37, 37.1, 39 and 40 for the 1924 business-centre freeholds; M5/21, 84 and 85 for measured properties; and M5/25, 70 and 74 for Throsby Park Estate. Some 1924 freeholds were still subject to Throsby leases with between eight and 65 years left to run.⁴

State Library map TP M5/4 from 1882 labels an “Old Argyle Road” route and records a nearby parcel with the McGregor name, but this has not been proven to match modern Lot 31 DP 619860. It is also clear from that material that “Argyle Street” appears in ordinary usage by 1884.³⁷

The Bong Bong parish area in the 1890s. A 1914 subdivision plan showing the older lot pattern.

Edinburgh House opened in 1888 as a boarding house beside the land where the Masonic Hall would soon be built. Mrs George Roberts advertised first-class accommodation, moderate charges and a position close to the railway station. When tenders were called for the Masonic building in 1890, newspapers described its site as being next to Edinburgh House.²⁷

A March 1893 feature described Miss Dunn providing hospitality and comfortable accommodation at Edinburgh House. In May 1894 G. A. Barry advertised his Cash Exchange next to the Commercial Bank. On the same newspaper page, and again the following month, Macpherson and Harriss advertised their general store next to the Masonic Hall; in September 1895 they explicitly announced that they had removed from Edinburgh House.²⁷

Abraham Salmon temporarily traded from the recently vacated Macpherson and Harriss premises in 1896 while his separate flood-prone shop and dwelling were raised. The Sydney Drapery Company explicitly reopened at Edinburgh House in November 1896. In May 1898, after Edinburgh House had been tenantless for some time, seed merchant Gerald Hemsley occupied and renovated it. Together these records assign the Barry, Macpherson and Harriss, and temporary Salmon sequence to Edinburgh House—not 374.²⁷

By 1912, council records were referring to a dangerous awning at S. Whyte's shop. In April 1913 A. M. Swan received permission to re-erect the balcony at Whyte's Argyle Street premises. Auction notices in 1920 and 1921 then placed Wynne & Holt's temporary offices behind S. Whyte's tailor shop, with access from White Street. Together, those records place Whyte in the balcony-fronted Edinburgh House on the Argyle and White Street corner.²⁷

The Whyte family moved the business to 426 Argyle Street at Arthur Street in 1922. Edinburgh House remained beside the former Masonic Hall until 1957, when it was demolished as Kirkham Street was widened.²⁸

Edinburgh House, with part of the former Masonic Hall at left.

Lord Carrington laid the foundation stone for the Lodge Harmony Masonic Temple on 4 October 1890. A contemporary report said Patrick Hill Throsby “presented” the land; later tenure evidence describes a 99-year lease for sixpence a year. Sydney architect C. H. Slatyer designed the two-storey building and Moss Vale builder James Linklater constructed it. Twelve builders tendered before Linklater's price of £625 was accepted, and £60 in freewill offerings was laid on the foundation stone. The temple opened on 17 April 1891. Lodge Harmony was actively using the hall in June 1894.¹⁰³⁹

A later scholarly timeline dates Lodge Harmony's closure to 1895 and says the “tough times” of the severe 1890s Depression contributed to its closure and those of two other nearby lodges. A newly located contemporary report, however, records the same Lodge Harmony installing H. A. Moss and its other officers at Moss Vale on 19 June 1896. The 1895 date is therefore not secure, although the lodge clearly had only a short first life. No notice located so far identifies a dispute, structural failure or single debt as the cause. The later mortgagee sale in 1906 suggests continuing financial pressure around the property but does not by itself prove why the warrant was surrendered.³⁹

The building then accommodated other organisations. By November 1898 Zouch & Co occupied the top floor of the Masonic Chambers above the Pastures and Stock Board office. When the mortgagee offered the leasehold for sale in January 1906, five rooms were producing rent and an offer had been made to rent the large meeting room; the advertisement did not name the tenants.³⁹

The newly formed Wingecarribee Shire Council was meeting in the former hall by September 1906, and its first elected council met there on 8 December. It remained until the shire and Moss Vale Municipal Council amalgamated on 10 February 1933, after which meetings moved to the old council chambers near Arthur and Throsby Streets.¹¹

A photograph catalogued around 1910 gives the clearest early view yet found of 374. Immediately left of the hall is the small weatherboard building, its striped awning and white picket fence plainly visible. Edinburgh House appears at the right edge.¹²³³

A 1924 sale notice confirms that the freehold beneath the council chambers and many other properties in Moss Vale's main Argyle Street business centre remained subject to Throsby leases. The auction plan identifies the hall parcel next door as Lot 7 and part of Lot 6, Section 1, but does not match the adjoining modern 374 parcel to a numbered sale entry. Earlier Throsby ownership of 374 is therefore plausible, but a title chain or reliable lot overlay is still needed to prove it.¹⁰

Harry A. Wallis moved his butcher shop into the former hall around 1932 or 1933, but had disposed of the business by September 1938. Its successor remains unidentified. The former hall was subsequently used as a butcher shop and private dwelling before being demolished in 1959 for the new Rural Bank building.¹⁰³⁹

During demolition, workers recovered a sealed bottle containing district newspapers from April 1890. The old papers were placed inside the new bank's front wall together with 1959 newspapers, contemporary coins and local-history records. The Berrima District Post reported that the bottle was sealed with “everlasting cement” in the hope of preserving the time capsule for all time.¹⁰

The hall around 1910, with 374 visible immediately to its left. The June 1959 report describing the building's history and demolition.

James Blythman's Moss Vale transport business predates the first secure record of this property. A later obituary for his wife Louise says that he was already conducting livery stables when they married in 1892. Contemporary records show him licensed for a cab in October 1893 and awarded the Moss Vale–Kangaroo Valley mail contract that December. By 1900 he was operating with coachman Henry Bell; their livery partnership ended on 30 September 1903, with the firm's debts payable to Blythman. No source yet proves where the earlier stable stood or that Bell owned or sold the later Argyle Street land.³⁸

The newspaper record establishes a livery-stable property fronting Argyle Street with working access from Clarence Street—the distinctive dual-access arrangement of today's 374. The modern street number was not then in use, but the council descriptions, business succession and David Baxter's location evidence together identify this as the historical site now known as 374 Argyle Street.³⁸⁴⁰

On 28 October 1903 James Blythman asked council to provide a bridge or pipes at the entrance to his Argyle Street property and a crossing over the drain so he could enter the same premises from Clarence Street. Council referred the improvement of Clarence Street to its improvement committee with power to act. In April 1904 it adopted the committee's recommendation for a drain in Clarence Street near Blythman's stables.³⁸

In August 1909 adjoining landowner E. Goodridge agreed to pay half the cost of connecting a drain through his land to the existing sleeper drain in Clarence Street. This supplies both an adjoining owner and further physical evidence of the stable property's Clarence Street drainage.³⁸

By July 1917 the man recorded in contemporary wedding and obituary notices as Edward Stanley Whatman was advertising hire cars from his Argyle Street bootmaking business using Phone 114. His business advertisements and the surviving stable photograph instead style him “S. E. Whatman”; that unexplained reversal of his recorded initials is preserved here rather than silently corrected. Similar car-hire advertisements continued into early 1918, before he took over Blythman's stable premises.³⁸⁴⁴

The 1918 transfer is equally well documented. Council approved S. E. Whatman's signboard in front of Blythman's stables on 30 March. On 11 May Whatman Bros sought electric light for “the livery stables lately occupied by J. Blythman” and time to transfer the vehicle licences. On 25 May council recorded Blythman's agreement to transfer the vehicle and driver licences to S. E. Whatman.³⁸

Local town historian David Baxter identifies S. E. Whatman as Edward Stanley Whatman and recalls that Whatman ran his car-hire and horse-cart business behind today's 374 Argyle Street around 1918 under the name Central Motor Garage. Trove independently confirms the business name: a July 1918 advertisement names S. E. Whatman as proprietor of “Central Motor Garage and Livery Stables” in Argyle Street, Moss Vale, and identifies the business as the one formerly operated by J. Blythman. It does not use a modern street number, but it directly joins the named garage to Blythman's former premises identified above. The photograph itself shows “PHONE 15” painted on the stable front, matching the number used in the contemporary advertisements.⁴⁰⁴²

Whatman sold the Argyle Street livery business to A. C. Rush on 16 November 1918. Whatman temporarily retained the associated motor side before A. M. Reynolds took it over by August 1919; Rush and Reynolds were both advertising from Argyle Street in September 1920. Phone 114 belongs to Whatman's earlier car-hire advertisements and was later reassigned to T. J. Winner, so it is not a fixed-property identifier.³⁸

The later account tracing Blythman’s livery business to 1892. Blythman and Bell’s livery partnership ended in September 1903. Blythman’s two street entrances, 1903. Clarence Street drain near Blythman’s stables, 1904. Goodridge, Blythman and the Clarence Street drain, 1909. S. E. Whatman's Central Motor Garage, c.1918; “PHONE 15” is painted on the stable front. Photograph supplied by David Baxter. Central Motor Garage and Livery Stables, July 1918. 1906 Blythman livery-stables advert. November 1918 transfer of the livery business. A. C. Rush advertising at Argyle Street with Phone 15, February 1919. A. M. Reynolds appears on the motor side after August 1919. Phone 114 ad is a business/telephone clue, not a fixed-property proof.

The institution behind the branch had a much longer history. It developed from Campbell's Bank in 1819, the Advances to Settlers scheme of 1899 and the Government Savings Bank incorporated in 1907. The Rural Bank formally commenced as a separate institution on 1 July 1933. It became the State Bank in 1981-82, was sold in 1994, traded as Colonial State Bank from 1996 and was acquired by the Commonwealth Bank in 2000.²³

Government banking began in leased Moss Vale premises on 13 July 1914 under manager Mr Berriman. Moss Vale's Rural Bank branch opened on 19 September 1921 as part of the Government Savings Bank and first worked from rooms associated with the School of Arts. Customers could operate current accounts through the new branch. A 1924 advertisement named H. M. Chard as the local manager.⁵

In January 1923 the commissioners acquired parts of two Throsby-subdivision lots at 396 Argyle Street from Ernest Rhodes for £1,375. A weatherboard cottage, workshop and garages had occupied the land. The combined Government Savings and Rural Bank building opened there in May 1924 at a reported cost of about £1,800. A manager's residence followed in 1926-27 at a reported cost of £3,450, and Harold Markham Chard managed the branch until 1928.⁵

On 15 December 1931 the Government Savings Bank's savings and deposit business passed to the Commonwealth Savings Bank. The rural-lending operation emerged as the independent Rural Bank of New South Wales in 1932 and continued under the Rural Bank name until 1981, when it became the State Bank. Sir William Vicars resigned as a commissioner in 1933. Surplus 396 Argyle Street frontage was reportedly sold to J. J. and E. F. E. Schaefer for about £400 in 1935.⁵

A 1937 newspaper notice placed a Rural Bank branch in Argyle Street between H. S. Whitford's premises and the Bank of New South Wales. The notice does not print 374, but it is another strand in the story of the bank moving through several Moss Vale locations before the purpose-built 1960 branch.¹⁶

Council reports from 1926 and 1928 also refer to posts obstructing the Rural Bank premises and alterations near the bank. They show that the branch had recognisable premises by then, although the notices do not supply a street number.¹⁶

A later Central Motor Garage was advertising from Argyle Street by April 1921, but the advertisement gives no street number and its relationship to Edward Stanley Whatman's earlier operation behind 374 is uncertain.¹⁹

The later Whatman Bros garage was a separate business operated by brothers James Clifford Whatman and Hector George Whatman. The same brothers ran the Bowral dealership, documented from August 1928, and opened the Moss Vale Central Garage in January 1937 at the later 409-411 Argyle Street site near the railway bridge. A 1938 burglary report places their Moss Vale premises against the railway embankment.¹⁹⁴²⁴⁴

David Baxter's later research records that the brothers sold the Moss Vale business in November 1947 to Edward Alexander “Ted” Archer and Harold Richard “Bill” Ward. Trove independently confirms Archer and Ward advertising Central Garage next to the Moss Vale Fire Station by August 1949; a 1950 advertisement gives the address as 411 Argyle Street. The Bowral partnership continued until Hector left from 1 January 1961 and James Clifford carried on at 31-39 Bong Bong Street.⁴⁰⁴²⁴⁴

The brothers were related to Edward Stanley Whatman, which explains some of the confusion created by the repeated family and business names. The available family reconstruction identifies their father, James Whatman, as Edward Stanley's first cousin, making James Clifford and Hector George his first cousins once removed. The parent-child and sibling links are independently supported, while the final cousin relationship still relies partly on compiled family-history records.⁴⁴

The bank also became associated with Tarrangower at 7 Valetta Street. In the 1927 rate book John Tomley still owned the two lots at the corner of Valetta and Elizabeth Streets. By 1930 Margaret Schofield owned the corner lot and Tarrangower stood there with an improved capital value of £3,000. Newspaper reports published after her death in 1943 said she had built the home thirteen years earlier, placing its construction at about 1930. It was therefore built as Margaret Schofield's home, not for a bank manager; the Rural Bank connection came later.¹⁷⁴⁵

A Moss Vale Council minute from 22 May 1928 records Mrs Schofield, through N. M. Anderson and H. F. Winch, applying for approval of building plans. Both men were local builders and contractors, although Margaret owned another parcel at the Argyle and Valetta Street corner and the minute does not identify which property the plans covered. Local accounts have also credited Alf Stephens or a Schofield family builder. Later research found that Margaret's son Robert, rather than Albert as one story had it, was the builder in the family. The person who designed and built Tarrangower remains uncertain.¹⁷

The council heritage study describes a dark face-brick Interwar house on a trachyte base, with hipped and gabled terracotta-tile roofs, a return verandah, brick balustrades and a prominent gabled entrance. Its retaining wall, fence and corner steps were made from trachyte quarried at Mount Gibraltar. Long-term owner Jan King said most of the original skirting boards, picture rails, doors and handles survived. Later work added a rear laundry and sunroom, replaced the kitchen ceiling and converted an already enclosed section of verandah into a dressing room and ensuite.¹⁷

A Wingecarribee Council heritage planner told Angus that Tarrangower and the brick frontage at 374 were both built with Bowral bricks from the Bowral Brickworks. Bowral Bricks began production locally in the early 1920s and dates its foundation to 1922, so the material was available when Tarrangower was built. The planner's identification is a valuable clue, but no surviving order, specification or stamped-brick record has yet been found for either property.³⁵

After the war Tarrangower became known as “the bank house” and was reportedly used as a country holiday home for senior executives and later by local managers. Recorded occupants include Hugh Malcolm and Geraldine Edith Robertson in 1953-54, Joseph “Jack” de Boos in 1954-56, and Alan Oswald, Joyce Olive and Wendy Joan Howarth from August 1956. Alan Howarth later moved into the residence above the new bank in 1960. Tarrangower is now Lot 1 DP 798790, a 1,312-square-metre locally significant home. It sold through Ray White on 8 May 2025 for $1.35 million.¹⁷

Tarrangower, photographed for its recent sale. The house, garden and trachyte work above Valetta Street. A recent interior view showing the house's surviving period character.

The two shops between 374 and the courthouse—366 and 370 Argyle Street—formed the rest of this small commercial block through much of the twentieth century.⁴⁶

The Webb butcher shop is now firmly identified as 370 Argyle Street. Robert Lane Webb said in July 1940 that he had begun business in Moss Vale about September 1938, and a February 1947 advertisement placed R. L. Webb & Sons in Argyle Street. A Berrima District Historical & Family History Society photograph taken in 1992 is catalogued as “Webbs Butchers, 370 Argyle Street” and shows Webb's Quality Meats between the tea-and-coffee shop at 366 and Throsby House at 374. The exact date the present two-storey shop was built has not yet been found.⁴⁶

Carlisles Pty Ltd also had a grocery and provisions branch in Argyle Street, remembered as “Carlisle's Groceries and Provisions”. The formal name printed in the records found so far is Carlisles Pty Ltd. It is first firmly identified in this search as a licensed Moss Vale small-goods shop in July 1940. Mr Lees, described in December 1941 as its manager for several years, was succeeded by Mr Webb. A 1947 branch list gives the shop's address only as Argyle Street and its telephone as Moss Vale 10. The suggested location at 366 is plausible, but no source found so far prints the street number or names a neighbour, so it remains unconfirmed.⁴⁷

The other property between 370 and the courthouse is 366 Argyle Street. Noel Watson Furniture was trading in Moss Vale by 1971 and a 1974 advertisement gives Noel Watson's address as 366. The historical society's 1992 streetscape photograph records the building shared by the TAB and a Tea & Coffee Shop.⁴⁶

1941: Mr Webb succeeds Mr Lees as the Moss Vale manager. 1947: the Moss Vale branch is listed in Argyle Street.

After beginning in rooms at the School of Arts, the Rural Bank shared the Government Savings Bank building at 396-400 Argyle Street from 1924. When the rural-lending operation became an independent government bank in the early 1930s, it eventually needed premises of its own. Research by David Baxter places that separate branch at 374 Argyle Street from the late 1940s until 2 February 1960.⁵

The strongest address clue comes from the February 1959 announcement of a new Rural Bank on the corner next door. It described the new building as “adjoining the present premises”, which places the existing branch at 374. Property records and local memories also remember 374 as the old Rural Bank, while 378 is the purpose-built building into which the branch moved in 1960.¹⁴

The shape of 374 suggests how the arrangement worked. Banking rooms faced Argyle Street behind a respectable brick commercial frontage, while the much older weatherboard house continued behind them towards Clarence Street. Adding a formal bank front to an existing house was a practical way to establish a country branch during the post-war years. A council heritage planner later identified the brickwork at 374 as Bowral brick, the same local material used at Tarrangower. The frontage may have been added when the Rural Bank moved in during the late 1940s, although its building approval, architect and exact construction date have not yet been found.¹⁸³⁵

Commercial listings later described an internal vault from the property's former bank use. The Chubb door visible today, however, was installed by the solicitors in the 1970s and is not the Rural Bank's door. What safe or strongroom the bank used remains unknown.⁸⁹

A contemporary 1953 report identifies H. M. Robertson as manager of the Moss Vale Rural Bank branch at an Aberdeen-Angus field day. A Narromine notice published on 2 April 1954 then records J. de Boos leaving for Moss Vale to take up duties at the Rural Bank, while Robertson commenced as manager at Narromine. This places their changeover at about 1 April 1954. The bank's involvement in local cattle and fat-lamb competitions shows how closely the branch worked with the district's agricultural community.¹⁶⁴⁷

Branch manager A. O. Howarth announced plans for the new bank next door in February 1959. He said the bank's decision reflected a decade of local growth in which dairy cattle numbers had risen 67 per cent, beef cattle 106 per cent and sheep 61 per cent. The new building was designed as a modern two-storey face-brick bank with aluminium-framed glass and the latest banking facilities.¹⁴

Moss Vale contractors Adolph Pittolo and Company had construction well advanced by July 1959. It was expected to open in November for the Christmas rush, although later records place the branch's move from 374 in early 1960. The building later traded as the State Bank.¹⁴

1959: plans for the bank's new building next door. The adjoining purpose-built bank in its later State Bank era. April 1954: J. de Boos transfers to the Moss Vale branch.

In the 1950s, 374 sat in a small entertainment and financial district. A few doors towards the lower numbers, Mack's Theatre at 348-354 Argyle Street drew Friday and Saturday night crowds and later traded as King's Pictures before closing in 1966. Further along stood the substantial 1924 Government Savings Bank at 396-400 Argyle Street.²⁰

The nearby Bank of New South Wales had opened on 6 November 1922 next to the shire council chambers. Its roughly 1890 premises had 33 feet of Argyle Street frontage and 162½ feet to White Street. The bank bought the site on 1 November 1922 and reportedly spent £2,820 on the purchase and renovations. H. H. J. C. Marshall was the first manager and F. H. Brown succeeded him in June 1944.²⁴

Further north on Argyle Street was the Moss Vale Hotel, long known locally as the Pink Pub. Around the same stretch were the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney and the English, Scottish & Australian Bank. Together the railway, courthouse, hotel, cinema, banks, shops and professional offices made this one of the busiest parts of town.²⁰

The nearby Bank of New South Wales was another part of the busy banking precinct.

Vicki Bishop remembers visiting her grandparents Francis Arthur and Philomeana Wallis at this house from 1958. Philomeana was a Cosegrove from Sutton Forest. Francis ran the stock-and-station business, shod and trained horses, and used the present front shop as his office. Children were generally not allowed into that room.¹³

Newspaper records establish F. A. Wallis and Sons as a Moss Vale livestock and auction business during the 1940s and early 1950s. Advertisements gave its head office as 372 Argyle Street in 1945 and printed 327 in 1948; later notices used Argyle Street without a number. These records place the business in the immediate precinct but do not independently prove that it occupied 374 throughout the 1940s.²⁵³²

The Rural Bank continued using the front of 374 until 2 February 1960. The Wallises may then have used more of the property, but Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards is conclusively recorded at 374 by 30 June 1961. Whether the family and the bank or legal practice shared different parts during the transition remains unresolved.⁶¹⁴

Francis and Philomeana had four sons, Roy, Ken, John and Keith, and five daughters. Vicki was John's daughter. John married in 1948, Vicki was born in 1950, and she believed family photographs may show her being babysat in the house as an infant.¹³

Her memories reach through the whole building. The present kitchen was her grandmother's room, the dining room was another bedroom, an aunt slept in the rear sunroom, the present living room was then the kitchen, and Angus's bedroom served as the family living room. One large shop-side room was used as a bedroom and for storing coats and furs. Vicki thought it may have been her grandparents' room before Philomeana became ill, and did not remember ever seeing her grandmother walk.¹³

At the rear stood a large clothesline and a substantial shed extending towards today's council car park. Vicki remembered entering along the side lane because there were no side gates. She thought Clarence Street may not yet have provided a practical rear entrance. Her account was that the family used the entire property.¹³

Philomeana died in 1966 and a large family clearance sale followed.¹³

Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards was still listed at Mack's Theatre Building in January 1961. The Commonwealth Gazette tax-agent register published that December, however, records the firm at 374 Argyle Street in a list explicitly current at 30 June 1961. This proves that the move occurred during the first half of 1961, although it does not establish ownership.⁶

David Cummins recalls Owen Lloyd Edwards saying that the firm bought the building from the Rural Bank in 1966. Leasing 374 from the bank between 1961 and a 1966 purchase would reconcile that recollection with the Gazette, but no lease or title record has yet confirmed it. Owen also called the property “Bluey Wallis's house”, preserving the Wallis connection. David understood that Mrs Throsby and Mrs Edwards acquired the property.⁸

The firm's Moss Vale roots began in 1929 when George Frederick Osborne Throsby opened a branch of the Sydney practice Wilkinson & Throsby. Owen Lloyd Edwards became a partner in 1948, creating the name Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards. George died suddenly in 1970 and Owen then ran the office. Garry Barnsley was already with the firm when his law-school friend David Cummins joined in 1973.⁷

Frederick Bushby Wilkinson, one of the practice's original names, had been a Sydney solicitor and Glebe alderman. Owen Edwards later received an OAM for service to veterans and the community. Garry Barnsley received an OAM for service to the Southern Highlands, and David Cummins received an OAM for service to Wingecarribee Shire, particularly aged welfare.²¹

The tax-agent register confirms the firm at 374 by 30 June 1961.

David Cummins recalls Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards building a four-hour fireproof room for storing deeds around 1975 or 1976. Local builder Fred Anthon was renovating the Commonwealth Bank further along Argyle Street when it installed two new safe doors. He offered Owen Edwards a redundant Chubb door, possibly dating from around 1939. The roughly one-ton door was rolled up Argyle Street, manoeuvred over the front steps and installed at 374.⁸

This explains a long-standing puzzle in what is now the residential hallway. Most of the hallway is wide with a very high ceiling, then the ceiling suddenly drops to an unusually low section. During Angus's renovations, builders told him that this part was made from fireproof or fire-resistant materials, which seemed very odd for an ordinary hallway. David explained that it had been intended as the original fire safe room. Owen Edwards decided the firm could not afford to pay for the appropriately rated door at the time, so the fire-resistant shell was never completed as a safe and simply remained part of the hallway. David did not know what safe or strongroom the Rural Bank had used.⁸⁹

The last rooms on the right remained in their earlier condition until they were relined in the late 1970s. The skillion-roof room held files and the rooms with windows became offices. A small courtyard once separated the women's and men's toilets. The men's toilet could be reached only from the side lane, and the present rear foyer behind the glass doors had no floor. The office story was that George Throsby used to nose his car into that space.⁸

Later work towards Clarence Street filled in the area between the outside men's toilet and the hallway, creating the rear foyer and changing the old courtyard and office layout.⁸

David Cummins dates the Throsby House name to around 1975. When he and Garry Barnsley arranged to acquire Mrs Throsby's half share, they incorporated Throsby House Pty Ltd and transferred the building into the company. David recalls that they then painted “Throsby House” across the front above the door. The building was also remembered locally as the chambers of Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards, painted pink at one stage and later plain cream. Its front rooms became lawyers' offices, reception and a busy typing pool. Clare Moore was Owen Edwards's secretary and Vonnie Cook was the firm's bookkeeper.⁸

The company and name arose from a threatened sale around 1975. Mrs Throsby's half share was offered through her executor, local real-estate agent Tom Friend. David recalled Tom valuing the whole property at $40,000, while the firm's valuation was $26,000 and $20,000 was proposed for the half share. David Cummins and Garry Barnsley borrowed to keep a real-estate agent from becoming their landlord; the company structure also reduced Mrs Edwards's land-tax position.⁸

A historical photograph in council files appears to have been commissioned by the firm when the Throsby House panel was installed. David thought Garry Barnsley's interest in photography and the presentation of the practice may have been behind it. Garry was also remembered as an early advocate for solicitors being allowed to advertise.⁸

The earliest printed use of the name “Throsby House” at 374 is a Government Gazette estate notice dated 21 January 1983. Further notices repeat “Throsby House, 374 Argyle Street” in June 1984, October 1986 and June 1987, each using the firm's D.X. 4957 Berrima District address. These notices independently confirm David Cummins's recollection that the name was already in use at the property.⁴¹

The firm continued to grow while based here. Price Prentice & Co merged with Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards in 1983; Leslie Price and Claud Prentice continued as consultants. Gazette records strongly suggest their full names were John Leslie Price and Claud Kevin Prentice. The firm also took over T. A. F. McCarthy & Son after Thomas Vyner McCarthy retired. Brian Hanrahan and Irene Pickel became partners in 1985, followed by Susan McGowan and Andrew Cameron in 1989.⁷ A 1984 professional register named Garry Barnsley, David Cummins and Owen Edwards at 374 Argyle Street.⁶

Government notices place Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards at 374 Argyle Street.

David Cummins recalls that the northern lane originally ran from Argyle Street through to the rear of 374. Jack, Edgar and Tony Webb's butcher shop next door had no rear access, so Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards sold part of the strip to provide a one-vehicle route to Clarence Street. Edgar Webb was a longstanding client and earlier discussions had involved George Throsby. Large delivery trucks used the route, which continued behind the butcher shop towards the boundary beside a former furniture shop. This arrangement explains the dogleg in today's boundary.⁸

After the Webbs sold the butcher shop, David recalls that he and butcher Bob Malcolm agreed to install gates at both ends and keep them locked, partly because people left bottles and rubbish in the lane. No independent record of Malcolm at 370 has yet been found, so this remains David's recollection.⁸

Clarence Street had previously been little more than a lane. When council widened it, the property lost an estimated two or three metres from the rear. Council then kerbed and guttered the road and installed the footpath.⁸

On the 1924 TP M5/7 plan, Clarence Street appears only as a short named segment. A 1950 town-centre plan still shows no continuous modern alignment behind 374, so the extension appears to post-date 1950, although the exact date remains unresolved.³⁷

During this period the rear was given a low wire fence and brick garden edging. David planted the large tree that remains prominent today, while members of the office staff helped establish parts of the garden.⁸

Former staff remembered seven women working across reception and the typing pool, sometimes all competing to do the available work. It was overstaffed by modern standards, but wages and office practices were different. It was a sociable workplace, although the old building could be bitterly cold. Train shunting, the traffic lights and semi-trailers grinding to a halt outside made it extremely noisy.⁸

The awkward box gutter still marks the junction between the old house and the added street-front section. David believed the firm installed the black and white canvas awning above the doorway. Autumn westerlies and the later street trees made the box gutter a regular trap for leaves.⁸

A government notice records that an extraordinary meeting of Throsby House Pty Ltd was held at 374 Argyle Street on 19 January 1985. The company resolved to wind up voluntarily and appointed Leslie R. Lowden as liquidator. A further notice called the final meeting of members and creditors for 28 June 1985, after the company's property had been disposed of. Neither notice identifies 374 as one of the assets disposed of.²⁹

A registered dealing from the following year makes a separate title change clear. On 28 May 1986, Nerida Gwyne Barnsley and Stefani Willow Cummins released part of an existing right of way over land owned by Owen Douglas Shields and Beverly June Shields for a nominal consideration of $1. The document was registered on 9 July 1986 and identifies the released area as the section marked B-C-D-E on DP 638776. It changed part of the property's access arrangement; it was not a sale of 374.²²

The January 1985 voluntary winding-up notice names 374 Argyle Street. The registered 1986 transfer releasing part of a right of way. The second page records the dealing against the burdened title.

In 1993 David Cummins and Garry Barnsley went their separate ways and divided two buildings between them: Garry received the Bowral property and David received 374 Argyle Street. The partnership had grown to six partners before contracting to a more workable three or four.⁸

Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards vacated 374 in 1998 and consolidated at 52 Wingecarribee Street, Bowral, which the firm had bought in 1989. Its accountant calculated the savings from operating one office, and the Bowral rooms were more modern, quieter and still close to a courthouse.⁸

Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards continued after leaving 374. David Cummins and Brian Hanrahan became principals in 2009, Christopher Young joined the partnership in 2013, and in 2020 the practice adopted a new corporate structure. Its current directors and principals are Chris Young and Sarah Young. David retired in December 2022 after more than 50 years with the practice.⁷

Hendrik “Henk” den Hertog's accounting practice was definitely at 374 by 1 July 2000, when he and David Cummins discussed issuing a GST tax invoice. NSW property-sale records show that 374 sold for $275,000 on 10 December 2001, closely matching David's memory of a sale around 2002. Henk later merged his practice with a larger Bowral accounting firm and retired relatively young. Angus's records also describe an accountancy lease around 2003.³⁰

Kay & Rose Solicitors also occupied part of the property around 2010 to 2013. A surviving legal-directory listing gives the firm's mailing address as Suite 3, 44 Clarence Street, Moss Vale, using the property's rear address.³⁴

Later occupants included Arthead; Sonja Millis told Angus that the business had leased the premises for a while.³⁶ Psychologist Bruce Schubert later occupied the front while the rooms behind continued as a separate residence. Under owners Christopher Lepher and Jacqueline Ann Kelly, Bruce's written lease ran from 1 August 2012 to 31 July 2014 at $16,550 a year. He remained until mid-2015.

Three men in their twenties who worked with a local outdoor-adventure business rented the rear residence for $320 a week and stayed until October 2015. A public record from that period also confirms that the rear continued to function as a home, preserving the property's old live-and-work pattern.⁹

By then 374 was in poor condition. The building was dark, damp and mouldy. Rain entered through the roof and there were holes in internal ceilings. It had been listed for more than a year at an asking price of around $600,000. A neighbouring antique-shop owner considered buying it, demolishing the building and using the land as a car park. Old-system deeds were expected to accompany the property, but none reached Angus.⁸

An earlier commercial auction campaign was withdrawn in April 2010. The later sale campaign began in August 2014 and continued until Angus bought the property a year later.³¹

The tired shopfront before Angus began restoring the property. Throsby House at 374 Argyle Street in 1992.

Angus McKinnon bought 374 in August 2015 for $490,000 and made significant repairs and upgrades. He replaced the old corrugated-iron roof, damaged ceilings and flooring and dealt with the leaks, damp and other neglected parts of the building. The aim was to make it useful again without losing the odd mix of house, shop and offices that had grown here over time.⁹

The purchase also brought Angus back to a town with a strong family connection. Keith Walter Dixon Tuchin and his wife, who was from the Fawcett family, lived in Hoskin Street, Moss Vale. Their son Dudley was born in Moss Vale in 1923. Keith was an uncle by marriage to Angus's grandmother, Elsie Fawcett.²⁶

Keith was working as a railway porter when he enlisted at 19 during the First World War. He served as Private 3941 with the 17th Battalion and embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT Runic in January 1916. He later worked for many years as a signalman at Moss Vale railway station and is remembered on the Goulburn District Railway Employees Great War Honour Roll. In 1932, Keith saved Elsie and Dudley after their boat overturned in the Murrumbidgee River. A newspaper report said a wartime injury to his leg may have hindered him as he struggled in the current. Keith drowned during the rescue.²⁶

The family later spread to Victoria, Western Australia and elsewhere before Angus and his sister independently returned to the Southern Highlands.²⁶

From mid-2016 until mid-2019, Angus operated a shop in the front rooms called Highlands Handmade, selling locally made arts and crafts while he lived in the weatherboard home behind it. Local residents could rent shelf space and sell items they had made in the area. Since 2020 the commercial rooms have been occupied by Kelly Hanrahan's i.care Psychology, which remains the current tenant. Kelly also runs Studio Zen Mind Body Yoga alongside her psychology business.⁹

A small balcony now opens from the rear office towards the garden. Orange, lemon and mandarin trees were planted near Clarence Street so passers-by can take fruit. People regularly stop at the back gate to photograph or inspect the white weatherboard house, surrounded by a green garden of trees and hedges in the middle of the concrete buildings around it. David Cummins estimated that about 90 per cent of the original weatherboard structure still survives.⁸

The restored Argyle Street frontage in 2026. Highlands Handmade brought locally made goods to the front rooms. The weatherboard home still reaches back towards Clarence Street. Road and footpath widening near Clarence Street, around 2016.