I absolutely love this picturesque view of Flinders street! For a split second, I can imagine I'm sightseeing in a cute coastal town in Europe (which is at the top of my bucket list)!
Flinders Street and Townsville City has several heritage listed buildings with lots of character and interesting stories of days gone by.
Atkinson & Powell Building (cream building in photo) was built in 1887 and designed by Willoughby Powell for chemists Joseph Atkinson & Francis Powell (the architects brother was a partner of the chemist firm).
In the early 1880s a destructive fire burnt down several buildings in Flinders Street. Building in stone, masonry or metal only was permitted so the old timber buildings from stage one of the settlement were replaced with substantial masonry ones.
It was a two-storey building with a chemist shop at ground level and a warehouse on the top. Soon after the Atkinson & Powell building was constructed the complimentary designed Queens Building was erected next door.
Pio Armati was one of the earliest Italian settlers in North Queensland, immigrating in 1874 as a young man. Armati and business partner Chiafredo Venerando Fraire ran a drapery business from Queens building until 1889 when their partnership dissolved.
Armati also ran an Insurance agency at this address and a chemist shop on Flinders Street, he became the leading pharmacist in Townsville. He died in 1923 and both Armati and Fraire have streets named after them in Townsville.
In 1965 the Atkinson & Powell building was converted for use as The Stage Door Theatre. The theatre was run on a voluntary basis from 1967-1979. Plays were performed 48 weeks of the year on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights with a new show performed every six weeks. The final curtain call for The Stage Door Theatre was September 1979 when the theatre door was closed.
Australian Joint Stock Bank (white building in photo) was built by MacMahon & Cliffe in 1887-88. It was the first bank established in Townsville as a branch of the Sydney based Australian Joint Stock Bank.
Click on the link below to discover Townsville's Heritage Trail 2, which includes the buildings mentioned above:
There are lots of impressive, architecturally designed heritage buildings you can discover while walking the Townsville Heritage Trails.
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