Anthony Hordern & Sons

Anthony Horderns was the largest department store in Sydney, Australia, which was originally established by a free immigrant from England, Anthony Hordern, in 1823, as a drapery shop. A further large mensware store was in upper George Street, and Hordern's also operated one of the largest mail order businesses in Australia. Several Anthony Hordern's succeeded their founding ancestor, and a huge six storey building was opened by them in 1905, called The Palace Emporium, the main entrance being completely fitted out in imported Italian marble. The massive store was located on the corner of George, Pitt, & Goulburn Streets in the southern end of the CBD. One of their advertising slogans was that they sold "anything from a needle to an anchor". The crest on their coat of arms was a budding tree, the motto: "while I live I grow". It appeared above all the store's window fittings and on all their stationery. [ "Sydney Harbour Bridge Official Souvenir & Programme", NSW Government Printer, Sydney, 1932, 'Anthony Hordern & Sons Limited': 113]

The development of American-style suburban shopping malls during the later 1960s, coupled with fiercer competition in the city, is said to have sealed the fate of the store. It was purchased by Waltons, a regional as well as a city rival, who closed it about 1970. Mysteriously, the tree on the Hordern family's estate at Camden, New South Wales, upon which idea of the crest was based, died soon afterwards. For many years it stood idle, and eventually part of it was made into a car park.

One remaining Horden's shop remained open in Windsor NSW until at least 1986 and included the old glass top display cabinets and a HCF (health Fund) agency in the back corner.

The Palace Emporium was subsequently used by the NSW Institute of Technology (now UTS) for some years. It (and surrounding buildings) was controversially demolished in the early 1980s for the infamous 'World Square' development, which remained a hole in the ground for nearly twenty years, before finally being completed in 2004.

There are still some legacies left in Sydney, such as the Hordern Pavilion, and the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon of which its oldest building, 'Shubra Hall' was the home of Anthony Hordern III until 1889.

Notes

Links as sources

* http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/thisworkinglife/6.cfm

* http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040477b.htm

* http://www.gabr.net.au/biogs/ABE0006b.htm