G Wood, Son & Co.
In the early days of this century, there were three local warehouses in Blende Street that came to be dubbed the Holy Trinity, but there is only one left now G. Wood Son & Co. LTD.
Before Woodson's moved to its present site in 1914, it had been in Gawler Place, and then on the east side of Blende Street.
When Woodson's left the east side of Blende Street, part of its warehouse became the Druids Hall, and now the YWCA Hall.
The other part of the warehouse became L. J. White's motor trade business, then White's discount grocery, and now Everybody's Supermarket.
The main section of Woodson's had been built for the Wilcannia firm of Donaldson, Coburn and Knox, but its bid to break into the Broken Hill market fell short of
expectations,and Woodson's bought the building for half the 14,000 pounds it had cost the Wilcannia firm.
Woodson's later added to its holding by purchasing the former Brice's building alongside it to the northern. That is where the hardware section was located.
There had been an alleyway between Woodson's and Brice's and this was built over to make a continuous line of building.
Woodson's had originally been wholesale grocers, and, over the years, went into trading in hardware, tobacco and liquor.
However, the firm went out of groceries in the mid - 1970's and later dropped its tobacco trade, retaining retail hardware and liquor.
WOODSON'S SEND REP TO BARRIER - It was early in 1888 that the firm, stimulated by the orders pouring in from Broken Hill in response to advertisements in the Silver Age, sent one of its travellers, Mr. J. R. McPhie, there as direct representative. Thus, the firm came in with an economic tide.
Broken Hill in those times was a name to juggle with.
When McPhie arrived, there could still be pointed out to him members of the Syndicate of Seven, who put up 70 pounds each, and pegged out 280 acres of the hill in which the Rasp Shaft of 1884 found silver ore.
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company - to become one of the most famous enterprises in the world - had just been formed; and the Silverton Tramway, a gold mine in itself, had just been opened to join the South Australia narrow gauge at Cockburn, so that Adelaide firms, profiting from lethargy of government and commerce houses in Sydney, were given quick and convenient access to a new market.
G.Wood, Son &Co. opened business, the population of the galvanised iron, bag and wood town was 3,000; within two years, it was to rocket to 17,000.
The year after the firm opened, the output of the mines reached a million pounds, which was a foretaste of the wealth that was to reach three million pounds by 1891, 121 million pounds by 1924 and 250 million pounds by 1950.
The firm progressed so well that, in 1888, it bought a block in Blende Street for 386 pounds, and built a store and office. In later years, the premises were sold to the Buffalo Lodge.
The population of the town was still leaping upwards, and, every month, new grocery stores were opened in Argent Street, Oxide Street and Blende Street, the busy thoroughfares that sprang up almost overnight from rough tracks.
There was rich business for the wholesaler first on the doorstep of the newly-opening shop, and Lodge (Lodge replaced McPhie) saw that his company did not lag.
In those years, he turned in many orders worth thousands from the new grocers laying in their first stock.
Lodge initiated, too, association with many station - owners whose business was to prove profitable.
The business, after its spectacular opening, settled down to a steady pulse.
After Lodge had left to take over a newly - opened branch in Fremantle, Mr John Fraser manager the Broken Hill Branch until his tragic death in a fall from a balcony on which he was resting after a hot night at the office.
His successors were Messrs A. V. Pyle and W. A. Davison, who found enough business - the town had grown to a population of 20,000 - for a staff of eight.
CONTINUE NEXT PAGE