The Argus, Melbourne, Tuesday 14th November 1899, page 2.
On Tuesday the 14th of November 1899, Ferguson & Urie’s flagship 281-283 Collins Street building went up for auction at “twelve o’clock noon” . There were no takers!
It wasn’t until February 1901 that the adjoining Citizens Life Assurance Company brought the building for an “undisclosed sum”. Other obscure reports from West Australian tabloids revealed a price of “between £600 and £620 per foot frontage”.
The Ferguson & Urie building would eventually be demolished circa 1915 leaving no evidence of one of the first buildings in Melbourne to have the facade approved to have been built of “Hydraulic Freestone“.
The Ferguson & Urie Building at 10 (later 281-283) Collins Street East.
Related posts:
30-09-1873: For sale, 10 Collins Street.
20-03-1884: Ferguson & Urie building facade approved to be made of Hydraulic Freestone.
22-08-1884: Ferguson & Urie New Premises at 281-283 Collins Street
21-02-1901: The Citizens Life Life Assurance Company purchases the building.
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Ferguson and Urie 