Two weatherboard cottages, one hidden from view, sit at 9 Anglesea Street one of Arrowtown’s main heritage residential streets. The cottages represent different eras of settlement in the development of Arrowtown from a transient mining camp to established rural settlement.

Section 7 Block V was first granted in 1870 to Samuel Goldston, the first Mayor of Arrowtown. It was purchased in 1875 by William Scoles. One of the more successful prospectors, Scoles turned to hotel keeping, building shops and farming. He also helped found and was a trustee of the local hospital. In 1884, he was described as the ‘oldest resident’ in the district.

In 1878, rates records describe a fence and a garden, although no cottage. Photographic evidence, probably dating to the late 1870s, shows a cottage on site, facing away from Anglesea Street. A later image shows a second weatherboard cottage facing Anglesea Street was in existence by 1910. The first 1870s cottage, was a small, symmetrical weatherboard structure with two sash windows and a central door. The second cottage was built probably between the late 1890s and 1910. Its architectural style is Victorian gable box cottage with an exterior schist chimney, double hung sash windows and timber framed verandah with cast iron lace.

After Scoles’ death in 1903, his properties were sold. The ‘orchard and two-roomed cottage and section adjoining were brought by Mr Henry McKibbin [1853-1923] for £30 and £25 respectively.’ McKibbin was a successful farmer and Mayor of Arrowtown. He leased the cottage and by 1920 William Dakers, a carriage painter, paid the rates as the occupier. . After William’s death in 1932, Sarah Dakers continued in the cottage until at least 1940.

In 1946, Ivy and William Hartley bought the cottage as a holiday home and it remained in Hartley family hands for 67 years. At the time of sale in 2013, the property included the weatherboard cottage facing Anglesea Street, a weatherboard shed close to the street frontage and the 1870s cottage at the rear, in deteriorating condition.