Summit Shirts & Pyjamas — Mataura, New Zealand
Posted by: 
Dunbar Loop
S 46° 11.666 E 168° 51.997
59G E 335388 N 4882137
Summit Shirts & Pyjamas sign looks down on the once bustling Bridge Street
Waymark Code: WM77QW
Location: South Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 09/15/2009
Views: 5
Mataura got its start by being a prime crossing location on the Old Coach Road linking Dunedin to Invercargill. After spending a few days in coaches heading south from Dunedin, the route descending down through Maori Bush before crossing the Mataura River.
Originally the river crossing was a ford a few kilometres south of the Mataura Falls. This was augmented with a ferry and in 1868 a suspension bridge was built which gave Mataura its present shape of streets and squares. With time Bridge Street became the main street and was quickly lined with businesses along its short length of 275 metres as all traffic entering and leaving Southland came this way.
By 1893 Lawson’s Building was built on this site. In 1898 J & J Galt, hardware and furniture, moved into the building and remained there until the building burnt down it 1908. J & J Galt rebuilt the present building and remained there until 1912.
At this point Stewart Brothers Drapers occupied the building and remained in operation until 1933. Then until 1935 Misses M. and M. White operated a drapery at the same location.
During the Stewart Brothers era the cutting room was upstairs and a sales room was on the main level.
According to Mataura: City of the Falls Stewarts Drapery history was:
This business was commenced by William and James Stewart in 1912 and located in the J & J Galt building. The top floor was used as a cutting room and one of the two shops on the round floor was the sales area. The business expanded in the ‘20s to take in the adjoining shop; branches were set up in Wyndham and Gore. The business closed in 1933. A keen bowler, William Stewart won the Southland pairs championship with W. Thorn in 1916.
Roy, son of William Stewart, conducted a radio and TV business in Gore until recently. He recalled a fascinating array of dead stock including men’s high collars stored away upstairs – perhaps in the hope the articles would some day come back into fashion. [Page 136]
Getting back to John in J & J Galt, the builders of the 1908 edifice, he built and lived a house in Forth Street. According to his daughter, this house had the first indoor toilet in Mataura and was connected to a septic tank.