Image courtesy of https://historicphotos.com.au

RIVER STREET MACKSVILLE

 

Mr Angus (Angie) Hall built, circa 1910, at 31 River Street Macksville on the southern bank of the Nambucca River in the mid-north coast of NSW and named the house ‘MACTIR’, a name composed from the first letters of Angie, his wife and four of his children's names.

 

Margaret, Angie, Cecil, Thomas, Iris and Ruby.

 

Angus Hugh Hall (1881 – 1956) was the 12th and youngest surviving child of Joseph Hall (1911-1938) and Annie Matilda (Griffin). He was born in the Star Hotel (initially the Macksville Post Office, and adjoining boarding house where Tinks is now) run by Angus' father Joseph Hall from 1874-1883.

 

Annie, who was two years younger than Angus’ father, tragically died from complications of childbirth in 1883 at 43 years old after the birth of her thirteenth child. Angus’ baby sister Annie Matilda Hall died 2 weeks after her mother on 26th June 1883, and they are buried together at Blackbutt Cemetery near Macksville.

 

As Angie was two years of age when his mother passed away, he was raised by his father, 4 sisters and 7 brothers, the oldest being Mary-Ann who was 22 years old when Angie was born.

 

Angie left school to make his way in the world at 12 years of age, commencing his working life at Sauls Butchery in Kempsey. After earning enough money to purchase a horse and bridle, Angie rode to Tingha to work on a tin dredge, before returning to Macksville to work for the Stitt and Murray General Store in Princess Street (later to trade as the Simmons and then Redaelli Garage), the start of his long career in retail.

 

In 1906 Angie married Margaret (Madge) Byrnes (1884 – 1969) in Bowraville.  Angie and Margaret had four children Hubert Cecil (b. 1907); Lionel Thomas (Tommy) (1911 – 1966); Iris Katherine (Catherine) (1915 – 1949); Ruby Veronica (1919 – 1943).  

 

In 1908 at 27 years of age Angie commenced his first general business, a store in Bent St (now Wallace Street) where he had previously sold roofing iron. 

 

At this stage of Macksville’s development the Nambucca River was busy with steam cargo barges, droughers and river dredgers docking on the Macksville Government Wharf along the river in front of the Star Hotel and east towards 31 River Street.

 

As a woman well before her time, Angie’s wife opened a small tuckshop to the west of the Star Hotel where the Veterinary practice is now located, and this tuckshop eventually became a restaurant serving up to 80 plates of Nambucca River oysters in a day!

 

Records are not available however it is understood Angie commenced building ‘MACTIR’ at 31 River Street when he was around 30 years of age in 1910.

 

In 1919 Angie purchased land on the northern side of his business in Bent Street (now Wallace Street) and built the large Halls Department store building there which remains today as the newsagent and Betta Electrical store. 

 

In 1920 Angie and Madge sold the general business to Meyer Bros and relocated to Chatswood in Sydney briefly.

 

As recorded in the Nambucca Bellingen News May 1920 at Angie Hall's Valedictory dinner attended by a representative gathering of Macksville’s business and professional men Cr. Wallace referred to Angie Hall as  “one of the largest property owners in town” and “from small ventures he had grown to large ones."

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Mr Don Sutherland said that Mr Hall as a citizen “had proved himself one of the true senses of the word" and that it was a great credit to Mr Hall that he had made good in Macksville, insomuch as he had started with practically nothing”.

 

In response Angus said “but now that it has come to the point of separation he was sorry to be leaving Macksville, where he had made money, although he started with nothing. He was not leaving without hope of returning, however, and if in the next five years was good as the last five years, he would probably come back here and settle down in retirement”.

 

Angie had not sold the premises, and stated that he had “no intention of selling them”.

 

However, Macksville remained his destiny and Angie soon returned to take over the same general store where he remained as owner / manager until 1946 when it was sold to Burns Philp.

 

Halls for All Pty Ltd sold drapery, mercery, boots and shoes, groceries, crockery, stationery, produce cement, iron, furniture, timber, wire, grass seed, all classes of farm produce and home requirements. 

 

In 1962 Halls employed 42 staff with one member reportedly clocking up 46 years of service.

 

The name ‘Halls Department Store’ lived on for many years in Macksville and the current owner of 31 River Street recalls shopping trips to ‘Halls’ as a little girl with her mother in the early 1960s. 

 

Angie Hall was an active community member and served as President of the Nambucca District Surf Club. In 1923 he served on the Nambucca Shire Council, and initiated the first Bowling Club at North Macksville as well as being actively behind the start-up of the Mid Coast Co-Operative Meat Society (MIDCO).

 

Burns Philip and Co later closed the Halls Department Store business and sold the freehold to Arthur Cooper Wallace, who then on-sold the building to Norm Poole for his electrical / white goods store. 

 

Norm and Faye Poole built and lived at 34 River Street (from 1967 to 2022) and current owner of MACTIR Susan Cooper (nee Hughes) started kindergarten with Ian Poole, Norms son. They remain friends today.

 

The river facing western room at 31 River is named the Poole Room after Norm Poole, as a legacy to Norm’s community spirit and, similar to Angie Hall, his contributions to the business development of Macksville.

 

It is not recorded when Angie Hall sold MACTIR to Miss Vida Jonson (born Kempsey 1909) who was a seamstress / dressmaker and moved in the late 1960’s to McKay Street Macksville.

 

In the early 1960’s MACTIR was sold to John and Patty Poynten, a local Solicitor and teacher who raised their family there until it was sold by Patty to Dr David and Susan Cooper in 2018.

 

Susan Cooper grew up in East Street and as her siblings Gregory Hughes and Helen Jameson were ‘best’ friends with David and Helen Poynten, they spent many summers at 31 River Street frolicking in the large concrete pool which occupied the back yard (and now serves as an underground detention tank for the property).

 

David and Susan saw 31 River Street for sale in a Macksville Real Estate agent’s window on Boxing Day 2018. With a vision in mind of ‘giving something back to Macksville’, (Susan’s birthplace) by late January they had purchased the property and all of the antique furniture collected by Patty Poynten over the years from local auctions. Many of these cherished pieces from local homes are currently being restored to be placed back into our 31 River property for the enjoyment of our guests.

 

Whilst moving out the furnishings to prepare the house for letting from late 2018 to mid-2022, when the 31 River Guest House renovation commenced, Susan found the image of Angie with his two sons, Tommy and Cecil, on the front steps of the property, in the rafters in the ceiling below the 1970s first-story addition.

 

As the fourth local owners of this grand residence, Dr David and Susan Cooper proudly steer MACTIR into a new era under their respectful stewardship. Some 114 years after MACTIR was built by foundational local Macksville businessman Angie Hall, MACTIR will re-open in 2025 as ‘The River House’, welcoming guests to stay for a unique, boutique, short-stay guesthouse experience.

Reference: Geoff Minett, local historian, and author of the "The History of Macksville" 1835-1965