One of the oldest stores in Woodford was built by H.C. Cowie. Having built the store at the Cove Road corner, sold it, and then bought it back again, he then decided to start off afresh with a new store built on a grand scale. In 1910 he built a new store with two shopfronts. He sold the premises to West and Eudy from Kilcoy in 1912, with Boaz Whitman as manager. Within a few years the store had four shop fronts. The business was sold to the Kennett Family who arrived in 1946. They leased one shop to the Union Bank managed by Ken Briggs. The bank was in this building until the amalgamation of ES&A and ANZ in 1970. The rest of the building was used as a business by Kennetts until sold to Barry and Roberts from Brisbane.
No 1 Shop. Black Bros. moved in when ES&A moved out. Blacks stayed there until they moved into their new premises where they are now in 1987. There have been a few other tenants until Mike Street expanded his shop into it.
No 2 Shop was used by Kennants, and then Barry and Roberts Department Store, until Black Bros. Electrical moved from across the road. They stayed until 1970, when they went into No 1 shop. No2 was then to become the Hardware Store until taken over by Thomasons. In the early 1990’s Caliph Computers and Woodford Electronics combined to occupy the shop. Finally Mike Street Auto Parts moved in.
No 3 shop was used by Barry and Roberts until Rex and Elva Clarke set up a Drapery store. The drapery was taken over by the Ferris family in 1969. In the 1980’s it was followed by Bea Maree. In the early 1990’s it was a hot bread kitchen, but they were also taken over by Mike Street.
After Barry and Roberts left it is not clear who was in Shop 4. Possibly Mrs Thorne the baker used the shop to sell their bread until they bought out the other bakery. In 1964 Hugh Johnson, the newsagent, then purchased the house behind the shop and moved into shop 4. He stayed until Andrew and Marlene Clews bought out Johnsons in 1983 and built their own shop next door in the 1990’s. A few more tenants followed in shop 4 and is now home for Jalla’s Café.
What was a vacant block but now occupied by Cutters Rest and Mug Beans that is situated between the old chemist (now Woodford Business Center) and Shop 1 was the home and shop of Harry Pryor the plumber in the 1920’s. The shop was taken over by Ma Harris in the early 1930’s. They baked their bread at D’Aguilar and ran the shop and café with help from Maud Hall, Beris Buchanan and Joan Singleton. The shop was destroyed by fire in 1939. The ES&A bank built a house on the block for their manager. In the late 1960’s the house was moved to a block near the old fire station to make way for a new Bank however with the banks merging nothing happened and the block has stayed vacant for many years.
Replica of the shopd built by Mick and Val Draper. Part of the Draper miniature buildings on display at the Woodford Historical Society Museum