Allotment 38 was sold to Burnett Nathan in August 1851. Four years later an ‘equal half part’ of the land – the southern portion of it – was sold to Richard Lathlean who probably began building his residence and shop soon afterwards. By 1867 Lathlean was assessed for his house and garden, a shop, warehouse, stone cellar, and shed. In the 1870s the complex was known as Lathlean’s Post Office and Store, the Mintaro Telegraph operating from 1873 with ‘ …. the instrument installed in the store besides the Post Office.’
Two early photographs survive of the shop and workshop – PH4 c.1890? and PH5 a 1951 view which shows the carpenter’s shop beginning to deteriorate at parapet level. PH4 shows handsome shop fittings, elegant arch headed windows with delicate nine-paned windows with arch heads and a parapet sign which says ‘J. Denton General Store.’ Lessees of the property or portion of the property included William Butler from 1874, George Montgomery from 1896, and Harry Cliff Denuren (sic) from 1908. H.G. Jolly and family ran a carpentry, painting, building and undertaking business from these premises.[1]
Richard Lathlean Snr., the original owner of this building, was born 1824 in Cornwall and arrived in South Australia on the 27th January 1847 on the David Malcolm with his wife and child. He is first reported in Mintaro, speaking at a meeting, in December 1855 and then named as a storekeeper in an inquest into the death of Anne Matthews, a servant in his employ, who died at his house in 1857 (‘…by the visitation of God‘[2]).
Having previously purchased the northeasterly part of Lot 38 from Burnett Nathan (a land speculator) the Certificate of Title vol. 31 folio 193 of 1862 records the transfer of the property to bring it under the Real Property Act 1858. The southeasterly half of Lot 38 was finally brought under the new Act in 1874 (CT vol. 192 folio 167).
In 1864 he sold his ‘business’ to W. A. Rabbich and opened a store in Kapunda but returned to Mintaro a year later and repossessed his business from Mr. Rabbich who was ‘intending to follow some other.’[3] Two years later in 1867 he purchased part Lots 50 & 51, on the opposite side of Burra street and south of Young street, on which he built another store. This property was subjected to the January 1874 flood of Kadlunga creek, the newspaper report of the day stating ‘…and on the level ground in front of Mr. Lathlean’s store it was up over the middle of a tall man’s body.’[4]
A devout member of the Mintaro Wesleyan congregation Richard Lathlean was instrumental in hiring James Fry as a teacher for Mintaro in 1867 while Secretary to the School Committee of the Church. He was also involved in the acquisition of the land that would eventually be the home of the public school.
Lathlean retired from business in 1874 and moved with his wife to the city. He advertised his Farrell store for let or sale but retained the Mintaro properties and leased the ‘business’ at Lot 38 to William Butler on a 5-year term. The business continued from 1878 to 1896 under the management of Henry Dickson Jolly, son of Henry Jolly, carpenter, who had married Richard Lathlean’s second daughter Annie in 1876.
The store on part Lots 50 & 51 was sold in 1882 to Mary Hogben, widow of Edward Hogben from Manoora, while in 1896 Mr. H. D. Jolly ‘disposed of his business and left Mintaro’[5] at Lot 38. This property was then leased to George Montgomery whose store on the corner of Burra & Hill streets was ‘…burnt to the ground last night.’[6] Richard Lathlean died in 1902 and the title transferred to his wife Elizabeth. She continued to lease the property and in 1905 George Montgomery sold the ‘business’ to Denton Bros. of Farrell Flat. By 1908 the property was leased to Harry Clifton Uren and two years after Elizabeth Lathlean died (1909) the property was sold to W. T. Mortlock.
When Mr. Mortlock died in 1913 the property transferred to his trustees and eventually was sold to Leonard Albert Fisher in 1953. After the death of his wife, Iris Collette Fisher, in 2015 the property was sold to Mr. Simon Stretton. The building has been undergoing careful restoration and development since then.