The corner of Vincent Street and Wollombi Road has always been a gateway site, now into the city of Cessnock.
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The magnificent School of Arts and Cessnock Hotel buildings dominate the spot, with a small park opposite. The site of this park was once a splendid series of buildings which housed a wide variety of goods and served as a large shopping emporium for the town.
The story of the park's former life as a central shopping site begins around 1903 when Wollombi shop owner James Andrews sold his thriving general store there and moved to Cessnock. He bought the potentially lucrative business site at the intersection of Vincent Street and Wollombi Road, a site with a huge potential due to its second-to-none location with high visibility to passing traffic on the main road.
Over the next couple of years he built a series of grand two-storey shops which wrapped around this impressive corner location.
Was love the motive? James had met Alice Ida Brown, youngest daughter of George and Martha Brown of 'Marthaville' and they married in 1907. It appears that the Brown family helped their new son-in-law with his business, the name 'Brown's Buildings 1910' appears prominently on the new emporium's facade.
James Andrews continued to work in the business right up until his death in 1924, after which the business was sold to a Mr. S. Batro, who operated there for four years.
In 1928 Reuben Farr took over the business, re-branding the stores as Farr's Markets, which operated there for a decade. It became part of a grand retail empire, significant in the history of Australian retail.
Farr's original store, which began in 1923 in Hunter Street West, Newcastle, is credited as being Australia's first supermarket. In their advertising they included a jingle describing how to shop in a Farr's Market store: "You walk around, pick and choose the goods you want, no time you lose; serve yourself, you're sure to say 'Isn't it splendid, it's the Farr Better Way'". It is the first description of self-serve inside a store.
In 1938 this prominent corner spot became part of the Conway's Cash Stores business, which had multiple sites throughout the Hunter Valley. They operated there until the 1950s. And just as had happened previously a whole generation of people knew this centre of commerce as 'Conway's Corner'.
