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Joshua Pitt PL Tannery
52-60 and 71 Gadd Street NORTHCOTE, Darebin City

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Darebin City

Joshua Pitt Tannery, Gadd Street Precinct

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Statement of Significance
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Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The former industrial complex of Joshua Pitt Pty Ltd at 52-60 and 71 Gadd Street, Northcote. Joshua Pitt established his tannery on this site in 1900. At this time, tanneries, bootmaking and allied industries were centred closer to Melbourne at Collingwood, but it was one of several firms that had established factories, or branches, in Darebin. The earliest warehouse and industrial buildings, generally on the north side of Gadd Street date from the early twentieth century when the firm established operations on this site. As the firm expanded further buildings were added and from the 1930s buildings began to be constructed on the south side of the street. The complex now comprises a group of brick industrial and administrative buildings on both sides of Gadd Street.

How is it significant?
The former industrial complex of Joshua Pitt Pty Ltd in Gadd Street, Northcote is of local historic significance to Darebin City.

Why is it significant?
Historically, the former industrial complex of Joshua Pitt Pty Ltd is significant as a representative example of a large twentieth century industrial complex. It provides evidence of the tanning industry, which was once one of the most important industries in Darebin in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Pitts was the largest tannery complex in Northcote and the complex is evidence of the municipality's prominence in Victoria's tanneries and boot making industries. Of the several tanneries that established in Darebin from the mid-nineteenth century it now the only tannery complex to survive substantially intact. (AHC criteria A.4, B.2, D.2)

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- Physical Description 1
  
  Joshua Pitt PL Tannery - Physical Description 1
  
  A complex of warehouses and other industrial buildings that are on the north and south side of Gadd Street, west of St Georges Road. The earliest extant building is most probably the central portion of the complex on the north side of Gadd Street, which is now flanked by later additions. It has a transverse gable roof, which is divided into two parts by brick firewalls that extend through the roof. The building is three-storey. The Gadd Street elevation has been altered with the bricking-in of window openings and the insertion of new wall openings. The buildings that flank this early building are brick and have saw-tooth roofs. To the rear of these buildings is a brick chimney of an industrial character with a banding at its top.
  
  On the south side of Gadd Street, there are other buildings that belong to the complex, which are of more recent origin. These include a cream brick Modernist administrative block and warehouses from the mid twentieth century and warehouses that probably date from the Inter-war period.
  
  Physical Conditions
  
  Joshua Pitt PL Tannery - Physical Conditions
  
  Fair
  
  Integrity
  
  Joshua Pitt PL Tannery - Integrity
  
  Moderate
  
  Heritage Study and Grading
  
  Heritage Study and Grading
  
  Darebin - Darebin Heritage Study
  
  Author: Context P/L
  Year: 2011
  Grading: Local
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