A photograph capturing Main St in Drouin, including the brick building of Henry Pease and Sons on the corner of Hope St, c1917.
Henry Pease purchased the business from J. G. Hearn in 1906 and leased part of the premises from him.
Mr A. Wehsek, who rented the eastern part of the premises, sold up. This allowed Henry to rent the whole building.
He eventually bought the building from J. G. Hearn in 1911/12, which at that time was a timber building.
Henry decided to hire an architect - Mr J. F. Shenton of Drouin - to design a new store. It was to be a two-level store, in brick. The lower floor would be a furniture showroom and the street level would be for general groceries and drapery.
The ceilings were 19 feet high (5.8 metres), and two skylights helped to provide light into the upper space.
Electric lights, powered by the Butter Factory, would provide light in the lower level.
There was 520 square feet (almost 50 square metres) of plate glass windows set into polished white metal and Muranese glass windows above the verandah, with a turreted and gable façade above the windows.
A letter from the Buln Buln Shire on June 28, 1913 gave Henry permission to use a portion of the road in Hope St to store bricks. It also allowed him to fence off half of the footpath during the building works. He was to light the bricks at night with lamps.
The 1909 electoral roll shows that four of the family worked in the shop. Henry (store keeper), sons John (grocer) and Robert (draper), and daughter Rose (sales woman).
Henry and his wife Mary had nine children, but only the youngest four came to Drouin with them.
Henry died in June 1917 and is buried in the Drouin Cemetery. The family continued to run the business until selling to Mr A Miller & Co at the end of 1922.