374 Argyle
374 Argyle Street frontage in June 2026

Moss Vale, NSW

374 Argyle Street

A main-street building with two lives: shop and office on Argyle Street, residence reaching back to 44 Clarence Street, and a history that runs through old cottages, bank vaults, legal rooms, maps and local memory.

Current identity
Lot 31 DP 619860
Dual frontage
374 Argyle / 44 Clarence
Story
Bank front, rear home

The Story

Older house, bank front, living memory

The best current reading is that the property began as an older weatherboard residence, probably from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Later, a brick commercial frontage was added at Argyle Street, leaving the older house fabric running back through the block.

The surviving vault, local recollections, 1959 newspaper clippings, and David Baxter's heritage-study note identify the building as the Rural Bank premises before the bank moved into the modern two-storey corner building next door in 1960. Title, rate and building records will add the legal mechanics and dates around the move.

This page carries Angus McKinnon's local history as the spine of the story, supported by clippings, maps, property records and remembered use of the building. It is public so former staff, customers, neighbours and researchers can add names, dates and memories.

01

The Dual Address

The same current parcel is tied to 374 Argyle Street and 44 Clarence Street, helping explain why front-office and rear-residence occupants can overlap in the records.

02

The Rural Bank Clue

The bank began in Moss Vale in 1921 through Government Savings Bank arrangements; later evidence points to 374 as the solo Rural Bank premises before the 1960 move next door.

03

Professional Rooms

Government notices place Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards at 374 Argyle for decades, with later overlap between Moss Vale and Bowral addresses still being reconciled.

Rural Bank Years

From borrowed rooms to a vault in an old house

The Rural Bank story at 374 makes most sense as part of a longer NSW government banking chain, not as a single neat address entry. The Moss Vale branch appears first as a Rural Bank branch of the Government Savings Bank in September 1921, at a time when rural credit and savings-bank work were still tangled together.

The wider line runs back through government-backed savings and rural lending in New South Wales: the Savings Bank tradition from the nineteenth century, the Advances to Settlers rural-credit system from 1899, the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales from 1907, and then the Rural Bank Department in 1920-1921. The Rural Bank later became the State Bank of New South Wales, then Colonial State Bank, and was eventually absorbed into the Commonwealth Bank group.

David Baxter's 2022 note, recorded in the Wingecarribee heritage-study evidence sheets, says the bank started in Moss Vale on 19 September 1921, operated as part of the Government Savings Bank, and had its office in the Moss Vale School of Arts with the same manager. In May 1924 the new Government Savings and Rural Bank building opened at 396-400 Argyle Street.

During the Depression the Government Savings Bank business was broken up and the Rural Bank of New South Wales emerged as a separate institution in 1932-1933. Angus's history is that this split, and the need for a proper country-branch presence, led the Rural Bank to take the older house at 374 Argyle and add the brick bank frontage and vault. The building still reads that way: an older house behind, a respectable commercial bank front on the street, and a large Chubb-doored vault inside.

This kind of adapted main-street premises was practical for small country towns and tight-money periods. Rather than immediately building a grand new bank, an institution could take an existing house or shop, fit out the front as a banking chamber, and keep the older domestic fabric behind for residence, storage or staff use. That pattern helps explain why 374 looks like a house and bank stitched together.

The strongest newspaper clue comes from the 1959 Berrima District Post reports about the new modern Rural Bank. The February article says the new building would adjoin the present premises on the corner of Argyle and White Streets. The new two-storey bank was built on the corner site next door, so the "present premises" were the adjoining 374 building.

Government Savings Bank

Public banking in Moss Vale begins in leased premises before the Rural Bank name appears locally.

Rural Bank branch opens

The Moss Vale branch of the Government Savings Bank is opened as a Rural Bank branch. Baxter links the early office with the School of Arts.

396-400 Argyle Street

The Government Savings and Rural Bank building opens nearby, giving the banking story an earlier main-street anchor.

Rural Bank goes solo

The separate Rural Bank of NSW emerges after the Government Savings Bank split, creating the need for dedicated local premises.

374 Argyle premises

Baxter places the Rural Bank at 374 until 22 February 1960; the vault, building form and local memory are all part of the same story.

Modern bank next door

Adolph Pittolo and Company build the two-storey brick Rural Bank on the corner after demolition of the old Masonic/civic/butcher building.

The old corner building next door

The later modern Rural Bank site was not empty. Local history traces it to Lodge Harmony's Masonic Temple: the corner stone was laid in 1890, the building opened in 1891, and Patrick Hill Throsby had provided the land on a long lease. It later became Wingecarribee Shire chambers and offices, then a butcher's shop and private dwelling before demolition for the modern Rural Bank. A time-capsule story about 1890 district newspapers being placed into the new wall belongs to that corner-site construction.

Tarrangower, the bank-house clue

7 Valetta Street, Tarrangower, is another lead. Local history says the Rural Bank bought or used it after the war as a bank house, holiday house or manager/executive residence. The manager A. O. Howarth is named in the 1959 new-bank article, and the Howarth family later moved into the upstairs residence of the new bank. This wider premises-and-residence pattern may help date the 374 frontage.

Front bank, rear home

Wallis family memories place F. A. Wallis and family in the property from the 1940s to 1966. The dual-address layout explains how the Argyle Street front rooms and the 44 Clarence rear residence could carry different uses at the same time: bank or office at the front, family life at the rear.

Later Chapters

Families, solicitors, accountants and a shopfront home

Wallis family years

Local memories place F. A. Wallis and family in the property from the 1940s to 1966. Francis Arthur Wallis was connected with horses, stock and station agency work around Moss Vale. Family memories describe the rear of the property as a home, with bedrooms, kitchen, sunroom, a large clothesline and sheds behind, while the front rooms carried the business face of the building.

Vicki Bishop remembered visiting her grandparents there from 1958 until her grandmother Philomeana or Philomena Wallis died in 1966. The remembered room layout helps explain the building's two lives: commercial front, domestic rear.

Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards

After the Rural Bank moved next door, 374 became legal and professional rooms. Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards are repeatedly listed at 374 Argyle Street in Government Gazette and tax-agent notices from the 1960s onward, and later notices still use the Moss Vale address into the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The firm had earlier Moss Vale and Bowral connections. George Throsby opened a Moss Vale law office in 1929, Owen Edwards joined the name in 1948, and the firm later merged with Bowral's Price Prentice & Co. Former staff remembered the building as offices, and Angus has seen it referred to as Throsby House.

Henk den Hartog and later rooms

Owner notes place Hendrik or Henk den Hartog, accountant, at the property around 2003. Directory traces also associate Henk den Hartog or den Hertog with 374 Argyle Street as an accountant or tax consultant.

Sonja Millis of Arthead told Angus that Arthead also occupied or rented the building at one stage, probably around the early 2000s. Arthead moved through several Moss Vale premises over the years, so this sits naturally in the shopfront's later tenant story.

Bruce Schubert, psychologist, occupied the front before Angus bought the property; owner notes record a front-office lease from 1 August 2012 to 31 July 2014. Other later uses included Highlands Handmade, i.care Psychology and yoga, while the rear continued as a residence.

Angus's restoration

Angus bought the property in August 2015 for $490,000 and still lives here. A 2015 pre-purchase report described a single-storey double-brick and timber-clad building with timber windows and mixed corrugated roofing, in average to below-average condition.

Since then the place has been restored as a home and shopfront, keeping the layered history visible: weatherboard house, brick bank face, vault, office rooms, rear residence and the Clarence Street side of the block.

Chronology

The longer local history

Early residence

Owner notes and streetscape comparisons suggest an older weatherboard house before the later brick commercial front.

Rural Bank arrives in Moss Vale

The Rural Bank begins locally as part of the Government Savings Bank story, with early links to the School of Arts and then the 396-400 Argyle Street bank building.

Brick bank front added

The older weatherboard house gained its brick commercial frontage and vault as the Rural Bank premises took shape.

Rural Bank at 374

David Baxter's note places the Rural Bank at 374 Argyle from the late 1940s until 22 February 1960. The vault and 1959 adjoining-premises clipping explain the move next door.

New bank next door

Newspaper clippings describe the modern two-storey Rural Bank built on the corner by Adolph Pittolo and Company, adjoining the present premises.

Wallis family memory

Local recollections connect the house with F. A. Wallis and family occupation, with the front rooms and rear residence carrying the mixed-use life of the place.

Wilkinson, Throsby & Edwards

Government Gazette notices repeatedly list the solicitors at 374 Argyle, carrying the building from bank premises into professional rooms.

Arthead, Henk den Hartog and later rooms

Sonja Millis remembered Arthead renting the building at one stage, probably around the early 2000s. Owner notes and directory traces also place accountant Henk / Hendrik den Hartog at 374 before Bruce Schubert's 2012 front-office lease.

Psychology practice and rear tenants

Bruce Schubert occupied the front before Angus bought the property; the rear remained residential, continuing the front-office and rear-home pattern.

Restoration and continuing residence

A pre-purchase building report described a double-brick and timber-clad building in average to below-average condition. Angus bought it in August 2015, restored it, opened Highlands Handmade in the front, and continues to live at the rear.

Help Add Detail

Help fill in the story

If you know anything about 374 Argyle Street, the Rural Bank, the Wallis family, WTE, Arthead, Henk den Hartog, Bruce Schubert, or later shopfront tenants, please email Angus at with any information you might know.