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historic Wiss Emporium & Cottage

stephen/kristine — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:30:28 GMT

Welcome to Kalbar's unique heritage precinct containing the Wiss Emporium c.1909 and the Wiss Cottage c.1890. Built for Mr Lionel Ainger Wiss, this quintessential country store and dwelling enables you to experience a moment of Queensland’s past and colourful history.

Kalbar is situated within the rich, fertile Fassifern Valley in the Scenic Rim Region, fringed by the majestic and world heritage-listed Scenic Rim Mountains of South-East Queensland. This giant extinct volcanic caldera is only 60 minutes from Brisbane's CBD heading towards Warwick. Kalbar was first settled as scrub farms back in the 1870's by mostly German migrants. Originally the town was named Engelsburg but due to rampant anti-German sentiment which prevailed across Australia during the First World War and also to celebrate the arrival of the railway into the town in 1916 it was prudently changed to Kalbar - an aboriginal name meaning "bright star".

The Wiss Emporium is still the landmark building in Kalbar today and attracts interest from afar. Constructed in 1909 for Lionel Ainger Wiss (a grand old pioneer in the highest sense of the word) and at a time when only hand tools were available for use, it was quality crafted from magnificent timber directly logged from the original surrounding forest - clearly this was a time when buildings were made to last!

The Wiss Emporium was built to replace the original general store that the two Wiss brothers - Lionel and Campbell, first established in 1890. This small store was called Wiss Bros. and stood on the present site of the Emporium building and beside Lionel Wiss' first residence, now simply known as Wiss Cottage.

The new Emporium building was said to be six times larger than its predecessor, and in afterthought was developed into a classic early twentieth century "department store". It boasted of being Universal Providers, the House of Quality and sold a great variety of goods from the most delicate lace and haberdashery items to sweets, newspapers, produce, groceries, hats, boots and shoes, drapers, tailors, ironmongers, hardware, stoves, paint, household furniture, insurance, farm machinery, milking machines and separators, tractors and oil engines, petrol and kerosene. It also traded farm produce, acted as agent for major farm equipment suppliers, and offered substantial credit, doing much to assist local farmers.

Today, following a meticulous and carefully researched restoration by the current owner, the Wiss Emporium and Cottage have returned as the Star of the Fassifern just as the Wiss Emporium was the jewel in the crown of the Wiss Family’s vast commercial enterprise in the early part of the 20th century.

Both buildings are listed by the National Trust of Queensland due to their cultural heritage and significance. Much-valued and treasured by the local community as a link to the past and for future generations to enjoy, the Wiss Emporium is regularly used for specific community events and charity functions and is now open to the public every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 10 am - 4 pm, except Christmas Day, Good Friday or ANZAC Day. Other days for groups on prior arrangement.

Wiss Emporium is "almost famous" and is invariably used as a draw-card to encourage tourists and visitors to our beautiful Scenic Rim Region. It is highlighted in much of the principal advertising for the area, on tourist brochures, guidebooks, newspaper articles and television programs.

Visitors marvel at the grandeur and craftsmanship of this intact, early 20^th century, huge timber building of a general purpose country store contrasted against the primitive construction and quaintness of c.1890 little workers cottage. This sharp contrast clearly illustrates the Wiss Family’s humble beginnings and their growth to establish one of the most important businesses in the town, as the town progressed into being the centre of a thriving dairying and agricultural district in the early part of the 20^th century.

Today both buildings stand proud as evidence of that bygone era. Come visit us soon!

History of the Wiss Family

stephen/kristine — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:19:56 GMT

Lionel Ainger Wiss had arrived in Queensland from Germany with his brothers, Campbell and Alfred, around 1887. They were German-born sons of English parents. After a short time in northern Queensland, Alfred returned to England and Lionel and Campbell moved to Ipswich, where they worked for grocers W Siemon & Sons for about three years.

In mid-1890 the brothers acquired an acre of land at Engelsburg, in the heart of the Fassifern Scrub district, south of Ipswich, which had been settled in the 1870s by immigrant German farmers. At this time, the township of Engelsburg comprised a general store, two saddlers, a cabinetmaker and glazier, a hotel and store, a butcher's shop, timber yard and blacksmith. The Engelsburg State School had been established in 1885. There were two Lutheran churches in the district, a Baptist church, a Primitive Methodist church, a Catholic church, and a small Salvation Army meeting hall. Much of the brigalow scrub had been cleared, and the surrounding district was dotted with small farm selections of 60, 80 or 120 acres.

On their Engelsburg property, adjacent to Heinrich Welge's Fassifern Hotel on the principal road from Ipswich to the Fassifern head station, the Wiss brothers erected a small store and adjacent dwelling. In August 1890, Ipswich architect Henry Edmund Wyman called tenders for a store and dwelling to be erected at Engelsburg, and by September 1890, a store for Lionel Wiss was being constructed there.

Lionel married Danish immigrant Maria Elise Wiuff at Ipswich in late 1890, and in the same year joined Campbell in partnership as Wiss Bros, storekeepers, at Engelsburg.

Wiss Bros was one of the earliest businesses in the town, which was emerging as a district centre following the closer settlement of the Fassifern Scrub for dairying and agriculture. Campbell Wiss had left the partnership by c.1904, but the name Wiss Bros was retained.

In 1903, their premises consisted of the small store and a separate dwelling fronting George Street, and bulk store and large stables at the rear. Lionel Wiss's property had been extended with the acquisition of an adjacent acre to the south in 1898, and a further adjoining 2 roods in 1901. When the new store was erected in 1909, the original store was moved a little to the north in George Street, and operated for many years as Surawski's Fassifern Cafe. In the 1980s this building was shifted to the Cunningham Highway.

The firm prospered and the new 1909 store (the present Wiss Emporium) quickly saw Wiss Bros became one of the most important businesses in the district.

Lionel ('Daddy') Wiss was a highly respected local identity, who took a prominent role in the community and the local Methodist church. In 1910, he acquired 56 acres in the centre of Engelsburg. About half of this he subdivided in 1916 into residential allotments, thereby creating most of the western half of the town of Engelsburg (renamed Kalbar in 1916 when the railway reached the town).

Despite owning acreage on the western side of George Street, when selecting a site for a more substantial family residence, Lionel Wiss chose four allotments in Annie Krause's 1912 residential subdivision of the eastern half of Engelsburg. The site at the corner of Ann and William Streets, on the small rise overlooking the township centre, was a prime location, and the house was amongst the first erected on the hill. This grand house, known as Wiss House is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the local community, including the building's siting and its contribution through scale, form and materials, to the townscape of Kalbar and its rural setting, the quality of the building's timber work and pressed metal details and the quality of the building's interior layout and detailing, including the relationship of the principal room to the view of the town centre and beyond, and unpainted pine walls and cedar joinery.

Wiss House was previously owned by the present owner of the Wiss Emporium and Cottage complex and she was personally responsible for its extensive restoration to its former glory. Consequently it was also placed on the National Trust Register. Photo at left shows Kristine Markwell (Wiss Emporium) with award and flanked by Wiss family descendants at front left and front right.

Lionel Wiss died in 1932. His wife, Maria Elise, resided in the Ann Street house until her death in 1957, and his daughters Adeline and Phyllis remained there until the mid-1970s, when the property was sold.

Adeline ran Wiss Bros Emporium until the business was sold in 1947.

Wiss Emporium

stephen/kristine — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:35:03 GMT

Wiss Emporium now offers visitors a unique shopping experience! Whilst not nearly as comprehensive as the range of goods offered in its heyday the former Universal Provider now contains an eclectic mix of high quality merchandise - high fashion, unusual conversation pieces, local/regional art and handcrafted finery from our best known artisans.

Textile designer clothing
Fashion jewellery & accessories
Fine arts
Cottage crafts
Photography
Old world garden charm

The historic Wiss Emporium is open every:

Friday, Saturday & Sunday
10am-4pm
except Christmas Day, Good Friday or Anzac Day

Other days for groups on prior arrangement.

Architectural Description (for the history buffs out there!)

This store is located on a corner site fronting George Street, the main street of Kalbar. The rectangular chamferboard building, sits on timber stumps, and has a corrugated iron gabled roof with a skillion awning over the footpath. Four decorative metal ventilators are located along the ridge of the roof.

The street facade is a virtuoso assemblage of sheet metal in imitation of sheet metal in imitation of classical masonry detail. It has three arched windows above the awning, the central one being the largest and crowned by a pediment with the inscription WISS BROS. Pilasters feature to either side of the pediment, with the dates 1890 and 1909, and to the corners of the facade, and are surmounted by finials.

The building is embellished by the use of decorative pressed metal sheets, depicting a brickwork pattern to the front facade and floral and geometric patterns to the verandah awning, window display ceiling and sections of the store ceiling. The shopfront has three glass display bays with cast-iron columns at each corner of the central bay. There are french doors with fanlights, between each of the bays and high level, centrally pivoting hopper windows to both sides and rear. The rear has a corrugated iron skillion roofed verandah with two entry doors and sash windows.

Internally, the building has exposed timber trusses with diagonally boarded raked ceilings with a central flat pressed metal ceiling. The trusses are supported by central timber columns with timber arch brackets and some of the original timber partitioning, with turned timber balustrade capping, remains.

To the south of the store is the original residence, consisting of two small timber and iron dwellings connected by an enclosed verandah. A bulk store, constructed of timber with twin hipped corrugated iron roofs and lean-to awnings was formerly located at the rear of the store as was a large horse stables building but these are no longer standing.