The Atlas Chambers was an imposing building with front windows designed on novel lines. There were a large number of tenants occupying the commodious suites of rooms upstairs and the spacious shops below. The elegant displays by Elliotts, framed as they were with arched windows, would have done credit to any city store.
The site of the Atlas building in Bayley Street is now occupied by Ben Prior’s garage, and was described as ‘One of the most striking additions to the architectural features in Coolgardie in the late 1890’s.’
Built of brick with cement dressings the front of the Atlas building was in the style of the French Renaissance and consisted of two tiers of semi-circular arches. The lower tiers had a 22 ft span springing from massive piers seven feet high. Within the arches plate glass windows opened into shops while the entrance to the top floor offices was under the western arch.
The most striking feature of the building is the symbol of the Western Australian black swan surrounded by the words ‘Atlas Chambers 1895’ and surmounted by the figure of Atlas holding the globe of the world.
The upper tier had six semi-circular arches and springing piers balustraded in between a moulded banister forming panels. Surmounting the centre of the upper tier of arches was a pediment flanked with parapets and crowned with the figure of Atlas supporting the globe.
The seventeen offices on the first floor were approached by a flight of stairs intersected by a corridor connecting with the front and rear balconies.
When the building was demolished in the 1930’s most of the timber was sent to Merredin and some of the bricks used in the construction of the present garage.
Elliotts Drapers – Atlas Building Coolgardie
Moya Sharp
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