This handsome Victorian building, home first to drapers Hood and Shennan and later, with a new façade, to the Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP), is a landmark in Oamaru.
John Hood (1835-1907) and John Shennan (c.1843-1887) established the first drapers shop in Oamaru in 1863 at the foot of Wansbeck Street.
Their business was a success and in 1871 they acquired a prominent site on the corner of Itchen and Tees Streets and built new premises, a ‘fine showy structure’ constructed from stone in Italianate style ‘plain in character, but exhibiting in a marked degree fitness for the business for which it is intended.’
The main entrance was on Itchen Street, with deep windows either side of the door. The drapery department was on Tees Street. A showroom was located upstairs, with a furnishing and clothing department, tailors’ workshop and offices on the ground floor. The contractor was Thomas King and the building was erected under Thomas Forrester’s superintendence.
The façade was remodelled by Forrester and Lemon in 1885 for the Australian Mutual Provident Society’s offices. The design included what architectural historian Conal McCarthy describes as ‘the magnificent marble statue group’ ‘Amicus’ which was placed on the corner parapet.
Verandahs were added to the shop fronts on Itchen Street and Tees Street. AMP owned the building until 1958 when it was bought by stock and station agents Stringer and Co. Ltd.
The North Otago Club took over the building in 1975. In 2010 the building was restored