Shop

Boundary Street in West End began to attract a number of residents and small business people in the 1870s.  The farming community that West End was at this time gradually evolved into a residential area, and various stores appeared to service this clientele.  Horse-drawn trams ran from Breakfast Creek to the Boundary Hotel in the 1880s, providing an impetus for both residential and commercial development.  The number of shops and houses constructed in this area in the late 1870s and 1880s is indicative of the growth of Boundary Street and the surrounding areas at this time.  While this section of Boundary Street, between Jane and Vulture Streets contained a mixture of residences and commercial properties in the late 1870s, it had developed to an extent that by the late 1880s it was almost exclusively commercial.  Much material evidence of this development in West End still exists in the present.

Mary O’Connor obtained title to this property in 1878, and it passed to Maria O’Connor in 1882. Maria married Herbert Farling in 1894 but retained ownership of the site until her death in 1907, when it passed to her husband. J O’Connor appears to have operated a grocery store on the site for a few years from 1885, indicating the premises had obviously been constructed by that date. Herbert Farling established a tobacconist business there around 1896. 

This property was purchased by John Condie in 1913, who continued the tobacconist business until his death in 1945. The property passed to William Condie and remained in family ownership until 1951. It has had several owners since then and has continued to operate as a commercial premises.