Situated on eastern side of George Street, at the Frederick Street intersection, the Crown Clothing Company building was built in 1900-1901 as a shop for Mollison’s, Duthie & Company, drapers. This section has seen a mix of domestic and commercial occupation over the decades. The building is of architectural and historical significance and forms a prominent corner position in Dunedin’s main shopping area.

Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori occupation in the Ōtākou / Otago region since the 12th century. Today, Kāi Tahu mana whenua is recognised over a large part of Te Wai Pounamu. Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha shared occupation are always acknowledged. The hapū Kai Te Pahi, Kāti Moki, and Kāti Taoka still maintain their presence and responsibility as kaitiaki in this region. While there were no permanent settlements around George Street, the area near the Toitū Tauraka waka (List No. 9774) was known as Ōtepoti.

The site’s original legal description was section 10, Block XIII, Bell Ward. The section was first owned by Henry Manning and Alexander Mollison purchased this section from him along with part section 11 in 1861 with stables advertised to lease there from March 1862. The White Horse Hotel was built on the site in 1863 by David Forsyth and opened in 1865. By 1876, Mollison was recorded as owning the section with the hotel, stables, and premises. The original portion of the building was erected in 1879 for Mollison, Duthie & Company, Draper and in November 1879 the company announced commencement of the business ‘in that commodious and recently erected brick buildings adjoining the White Horse Hotel’.

The White Horse Hotel continued to run until it was refused a license in 1894 and the building was occupied by William Elder, chemist. In the same year, the front of the old Hotel was altered with the shop front (lower storey only) and filling in of two windows and doorways on the Frederick Street frontage (Figure 3). William Elder’s Estate took over the ownership of Part Section 10 in 1900.

The Mollison building was described in June 1901 as one of the ‘ornaments’ at that end of town: ’It is a three-storey building, with very large cellarage. A verandah of the latest style, with hundreds of feet of glass, gives a fine effect to the premises, and the cornices and carving display much skill on the part of the workmen. There are six large windows of plate-glass, which are splendidly adapted as a means of displaying samples of the many goods which may be purchased within’.

The building has oriel windows on the third storey near the corner of the building. The second storey window near the ends of the building have triangular of segmental pediments. The second story windows on the angled corner have a singular triangular pediment above them. Two triangular pediments and balustraded parapet top the angles corner of the building.

Around 1920 the firm was taken over by A &T Inglis and 4 years later Inglis sold the building to George Hancox, a clothing manufacturer. The Crown Clothing Company occupied the building until 1926. Hancox sold the earlier potion of the building facing George Street to Thomas Newbold, a Methodist minister. Newbold’s wife opened a book store and Newbold’s Bookshop became a Dunedin Institution closing in 1966. The Pacific Fruit Company occupied the corner site from 1931 until 1991. In 1990 the building was saved from demolition by public pressure with the interior gutted and rebuilt and the façade remaining. It was then occupied by Westpac Bank and later ASB Bank with CJ Asian Supermarket opening there in 2020 and continues today.