Built in the early 1870s for merchant Robert Pritchard, this stone building is typical of the small structures built in nineteenth century Arrowtown, and has architectural and historical significance.

Welsh-born Robert Pritchard (1826-1907) was one of Arrowtown’s early merchants. With wife Grace (nee Thickpenny) he had moved from Growlers Creek, Victoria, to Otago around 1862. He had a store on Arrowtown’s main street in 1862, positioned provide essential goods to the throngs of gold miners heading to the Arrow. When surveyed sections became available in Arrowtown in 1870, Robert Pritchard took up the crown grants on a section on Buckingham St and on three across Arrow Lane and up Berkshire St. In 1875, he bought two more sections from a Mr Goldston to give him a solid block of land - sections 17 and 18 on Buckingham Street and sections 28-31 on Berkshire Street. Pritchard died a storekeeper in 1907 and left all his land and building to his daughter, Grace Allen. She leased the property at first to Goodleys and then in 1921 to W Reid and Sons. The Reids bought the store in 1926 and operated it until 1942. It was bought by W B Gibb and Sons, trading as Arrowtown Stores Limited.

This building is said to have been the stable for Pritchard’s store, and was built by 1874, appearing in a photograph from around that date. An 1874 image shows the stone building with two small window openings and a central door. There is a lean-to to one side. Later photographs from the nineteenth century show a tumble of small buildings on Berkshire Street as it descends the hill onto Arrowtown’s main street, Buckingham Street. The topmost of these is a small single gable structure, which looks to be rectangular in plan. A photograph, taken before 1896, shows the building, with a central door opening visible, flanked by a small window, with the building partially obscured by trees. There is a small lean-to on the side elevation away from Berkshire Street. Another undated photograph shows the building from Berkshire Street, with a window under the gable on the street side of the structure.

In the 1980s, the building was altered to become a private residence. In 2015, this stone building remains a private residence.