Views of Maitland

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David Cohen & Co, Maitland

Type:	Built	(Click to enlarge)
Group:	Retail and Wholesale
Category:	Shop
Town/City:	Maitland
Local Govt Area:	Maitland City
Street Address:	226-228 High Street, Maitland (in 2017, the Centrelink Offices)
Postcode:	2320
Description:
The building today retains the facade of the bottom floor of what was originally a three storey building with a number of outbuildings. Hunter (2001:18) writes: ‘Built in brick with a front of local Ravensfield stone, the three-storey building had a fine iron spiral staircase and for the movement of goods, a patent lift. The facade was said to have no equal in Australia... Just as impressive were the outbuildings. These included a large grain and salt store, a spirit store, a sugar store in two storeys, a nail store and a Staffordshire warehouse, the whole being built on a four acre block with the Hunter River at the rear.’ The remaining facade, from local Ravensfield sandstone, hints at the impressive style and form of the original building. The grotesqueries above the windows, the arches, the fine stonework are all still evident.
History:
David Cohen and Company was established in the late 1830s and occupied this site from some time in the 1840s. In 1853, the area was described as a ‘variety of houses and buildings on both sides of High Street’ (Maitland Mercury, 5 November 1853). New premises were erected in 1854 and referred to in the local newspaper as ‘the finest building yet erected in Maitland at private cost’. It was ‘three stories high, has a street frontage of 75 feet, and a depth of 135 or 140 feet, but extensive stores or warehouses, two stories high, extend further back.’ The ground floor had a shop and offices or apartments, and the upper floors provided sixteen ‘dwelling apartments’. (Maitland Mercury, 9 December 1854). A landslip caused by the 1864 flood tore away a part of the building along with neighbouring stores and houses. This was followed, in 1865, by a fire that severely damaged the premises and the Lipscomb chemist and bookshop that was next door. (Wilton 2010: 36). The response from David Cohen and Company was to commission colonial architect Edmund Blacket to design a new building. The design was influenced by Blacket’s assistant, John Horbury Hunt, who, in the words of architect historian H.G. Wolfenden, added an ‘uncharacteristic ebullience and vigour’ to the design (Wolfenden, 1969). It is the facade from this building that remains today. By the early twentieth century, the main premises of David Cohen and Company had been moved to Newcastle. The Maitland building was subsequently used as a wholesale grocery warehouse and a furniture factory. In 1970 it was gutted by fire. (McNamee and Campbell 2009) The facade remains as a tribute to the heady days of the nineteenth century when Maitland was the main commercial and trade hub north of Sydney.

Related Records

Collections:
David Cohen and Company West Maitland papers	Maitland
Dinah Harvey papers	Sydney
University of Newcastle Living Histories
Documents:
A.M.Cohen to Secretary, Australian Jewish Historical Society, 5 June 1961	Cohen, Alroy Maitland
David Cohen and Company
Deed of co-partnership as merchants between Messrs David Cohen, Samuel
Dinah Harvey papers	Harvey, Dinah
Extracts from Rate Books of Maitland relating to the Cohen and	Campbell, Ann
Memorandum and Articles of Association of David Cohen and Company Limited
Samuel Cohen to President, Australian Jewish Historical Society, 12 August 1940	Cohen, Samuel
West Maitland Gas Rates, 1878
Images:
Cohen building, High Street, West Maitland, c1915
Cohen building, High Street, West Maitland, n.d
David Cohen and Company building, High Street
Floods - High Street, West Maitland, from Illustrated
High Street during 1893 flood - Cohen’s warehouse
High Street, West Maitland
People:
COHEN David	1816 to 1902	London, Maitland, Sydney
COHEN Henry	1840 to 1912	Port Macquarie,Goulburn
COHEN Morris	1827 to 1878	London, Maitland
COHEN Neville	1852 to 1923	Maitland, Sydney, (London
COHEN Samuel	1812 to 1861	London, Sydney, Maitland
LEVY Lewis	1815 to 1885	Sydney, Maitland, Tamworth
Themes:
Commerce
Ethnic influences - Jewish sites
Ethnic influences - Jews
Publications, Reports, Theses:
A New History of Maitland, Council of the City of Maitland 1983 Baloh, Jaki, Baseline Archeological Assessment: Maitland Technical College, High Street, Maitland, Carste Studio, Report for Maitland City Council 2012 Benjamin, David, ‘The Macquarie Street synagogue, 1859-1877’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 3/9 1953, pp.379-431 Bergman, George F.J., ‘The Jews of Maitland’, Australian Jewish Times, 3 July 1975, pp.10 Bergman, George, ‘Samuel Cohen (1812-1861): an early settler and a parliamentarian with a conscience’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 6/6, 1969, pp.334-344 Bergsteiner, McInnes and Rigby, Central Maitland: A Study of Its Historic Buildings and Townscape, Report for Maitland City Council 1977 Bersten, Helen, ‘Jews in rural New South Wales’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 13/4 1997, pp.596-634 Bogan, Peter, 1893 Flood, Maitland and District Historical Society (pamphlet series) 2014 Boyle, Harry, ‘Jewish families big in our history’, Maitland Mercury, 6 February 2004 Brien, Kenneth, Hunter River Agricultural and Horticultural Association’s 150th Maitland Show 1861-2011, Bookmen, Brisbane 2011 Charlton, Ken D,, The architecture of High Street, Maitland: a history of the architecture and architects of High Street, Maitland, Newcastle, Newcastle College, University of NSW 1961 ‘Cintra’, NSW State Heritage List 2012 Forbes, Morris, ‘A short history of the Jews of Maitland’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 8/7 1979, pp.413-436 Fredman, Lionel, ‘David Cohen & Co - the family and the firm’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 9/8 1985, pp.594-608 Free settler or felon? Hebrew Standard of Australasia Hunter, Cynthia, Central Maitland Riverside Precinct: Hunter River Historical Study, Maitland City Council 2002 Hunter, Cynthia, Horseshoe Bend Maitland: HIstorical Study, Prepared for Maitland City Council 2000 Hunter, Cynthia, Horseshoe Bend, Maitland, Maitland City Council, Maitland 2001 Levi, J.S. and Bergman, G.F.J., Australian Genesis: Jewish Convicts and Settlers, 1788-1850, Rigby, Adelaide 1974 ‘Maitland Centenary’, The Hebrew Standard, 21 February 1936 Maitland Mercury Maitland: Hub of the Hunter - Historical Homes and Buildings, 4th Edition, Maitland Lions Club 1983 Rubinstein, Hilary L., The Jews in Australia: A Thematic History, Volume One 1788-1945, William Heinemann, Melbourne 1991 Rudkin, Val, Take A Look Back At High Street Maitland (pamphlet series), Maitland and District Historical Society 2014 Rudkin, Val, Who? What? Where? People of 19th Century High Street Maitland, Maitland and District Historical Society, Maitland 2015 Turner, John, The Rise of High Street, Maitland: A Pictorial History, Council of the City of Maitland, Maitland Bicentennial Community Committee and the Maitland Mercury 1988 Walsh, Brian and Cameron Archer, Maitland on the Hunter, Second Edition, C B Alexander Foundation, Tocal 2007 West Maitland: With Compliments, Maitland, W.W. Harkins. (printed by Thomas Dimmock) 1922 Wilton, Janis, ‘David Cohen and his siblings’, Maitland: Our Place, Our Stories, Maitland and District Historical Society 2026 Wilton, Janis, Encounters with Maitland’s early Jewish community, Maitland City Council 2017 Wilton, Janis, Maitland Jewish Cemetery: A Monument to Dreams and Deeds, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland 2010 Wolfenden, H.G., 'Blacket, Edmund Thomas (1817–1883)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1969

Views of Maitland Record No.: S6
Created: 17/12/2008
By: Janis Wilton
Modified: 19/11/2009
By: Janis Wilton