This two-storey commercial building, designed by Invercargill architect E.R. Wilson and completed in 1905, was built for general merchants Matheson and Co. with a shop front, offices on the first floor (including that of Wilson himself), and a large store at the rear associated with Mathesons adjacent Dee Street shop. The building has historical, architectural and aesthetic significance.

Matheson and Co. were general merchants who operated stores in Invercargill and the wider Southland district. The business was founded in 1863 under the style of Matheson and Cameron. Farquhar and John Matheson conducted the business from 1895. Mackenzie and Wilson tendered for the ‘erection of business premises, offices, etc, in Esk Street, for Messrs Matheson and Co.’ Invercargill builder Malcolm Robertson won the tender.

Wilson’s handsome new building replaced what had been a ‘decrepit and unsightly building used as a fish shop.’ It is a two-storey building with Classical Victorian façade. It has three pairs of round-headed windows, divided by engaged pilasters which support a triangular pediment. The building covered 165 by 34 ft [50.1 by10.4 metres], the whole of the available site. The front part of the ground floor was occupied (and designed especially for) hairdressers and tobacconists Messrs Double Bros. The upstairs was offices for architects McKenzie and Wilson, and solicitor C.S. Longuet. The back portion of the building was a ‘spacious store’ for building owners and grocers Messrs Matheson. The opulence of the ground floor salon was such that it merited a detailed description in the Southland Times. A stair led to the generous first floor hall (notable for the use of native timbers). One the left hand side of the landing was McKenzie and Wilson’s suite of offices – with three rooms: a draughting room, an office for Wilson (including a strongroom) and a contractor’s room, in which architectural drawings could be examined. Across the hall was Longuet’s office and private rooms.

The rear of the building housed Messrs Matheson and Co.’s ‘large storeroom.’ The storeroom had a ‘light steel trussed roof’ with a 34 foot [10.4 metre] span. The greater part of the ground floor was covered by a’a staging of a convenient height for the unloading and loading of drays. Beneath the staging is a basement for the accommodation of empty cases of goods, close at hand is a packing room, where stores are prepared for sending out to customers.’ The store was connected to Matheson’s main premises on Dee Street. The Southland Times described how the ‘street frontage of the building is finished with a glass and iron verandah of light and artistic design, similar to that in front of the Dee street shop.’ ‘The building as a whole serves as an indication of the stage of development that the town has reached.’

E.R. Wilson had his offices in the building until the 1930s. For many years it was home to a succession of hairdressers or beauticians. In 1940s the property was purchased by Bruce Woollen and Manufacturing Company and housed their retail premises. Goodall and Sons, footwear specialists were another significant long term owner. Goodall’s was a family footwear business, begun in Winton in 1910, before setting up an Invercargill branch.

In 2017, it remains a significant element in the streetscape.