J and T Meek’s Grain Store designed by prominent Oamaru partnership Forrester and Lemon, is an ornately detailed building standing alongside the other stone stores on Harbour Street. Built in 1876-77, just ten years after the Meeks established their flour mill this store, with its capacity to store 30,000 sacks of grain, represents the wealth and prosperity that grew from the grain industry in the 1870s, and that is expressed in Oamaru’s outstanding Victorian architecture.

J and T Meek began their involvement in the grain business with the construction of a steam flour mill on Oamaru’s Severn Street in 1869. In 1879 they expanded their business with the purchase of J.T. Evans & Co’s Crown mill, and again in 1883 when they built the huge grain elevator building alongside the railway land to the north of Harbour Street.

Scottish-born Thomas Meek (1842-1905), a joiner by trade, arrived in Oamaru in 1863. After buying a threshing machine, which he worked for six years, he then began to develop a flour milling business. He was prominent in local politics, being a member of Oamaru Borough Council for many years, and held a seat on the Oamaru Harbour Board.

In later years the grain store was occupied by Messrs Darling & McDowell Ltd (who installed grass seed cleaning machines) by the Northern Farmers’ Co-op, Wrightson and Dalgety, and by Cattos Wool Store. By the 1920s milling had declined as grain was sourced from Australia and many grain stores lost their original use.

Architectural historian Conal McCarthy describes the features of the grain store: like other grain stores on Harbour Street, modeled on exchange buildings that were common in Britain, J and T Meek’s Grain Store has a large arched central doorway, with symmetrically placed arched windows on either side. The store has an ornate entablature and fine detailing on the main façade. It has a single gable running the length of the building with a clerestory providing natural light to the interior.

In 2013 J and T Meek’s Grain Store (Former), houses a wool store, and is an historic attraction alongside the other remarkable Oamaru stone buildings in the Harbour/Tyne precinct, a registered Historic Area (Register No. 7064).