Browns Mart
From Commerce to Theatre
Messrs. V. L. Solomon and Co. have just completed the largest and finest stone store yet raised in Palmerston... nearly opposite the Town Hall (it is) designed to harmonise with the Town Hall without copying its detail (Northern Territory Times and Gazette, January and February 1885).
Bi. 0fopan and Compari = aucioners hpping agent, and and estate agets, ipo ters, stock and station ageris, agents for
Lloyds of London and Customs House agents. The buildings survived the Japanese raids in 1942, and were then occupied by the Royal Australian Navy as Naval Headquarters, HMAS Melville, due to their location close to the Port:
Constructed to the design of John George Knight, Solomon's Emporium presented "a substantial appearance and is unquestionably the finest warehouse yet erected in the Territory", according to the Northern Territory Times. It was constructed at a time when the more substantial buildings in Palmerston, later to become Darwin, reflected the grander stone structures in southern Australia.
By 1887 local businessmen, Victor V. Brown and Herbert H. Adcock, were trading from here as Port Darwin Mercantile and Agency Company. The company went into liquidation in 1895, but Brown emerged to resume trading a year later.
The building suffered considerable damage in the 1897 cyclone, and following repairs remained in the Brown family until it was compulsorily acquired by the military in 1946. From 1937 the Bank of New South Wales leased the building for three years. It is also said to have been a brothel, motor vehicle registry and legislative council office. The navy took it over in 1942 and used it as a torpedo workshop during World War II, before eventually moving out in 1952. From then it served a variety of uses including Crown Law Office, Police Headquarters and, from its opening in August 1972, as Browns Mart Theatre.
But, as with so many of Darwin's old stone buildings and their low resistance to high wind loads, Browns Mart was seriously damaged men Carne Theatre erd throufo thes tost ost-cyclone production, No Show, in July that year. An administration block was later
added and the courtyard roofed over.
This once busy and significant part of Darwin's history remains an important part of the Territory's community arts scene.