Duryea's Photographic Gallery

In 1867 Townsend Duryea had his photographic gallery on the south-east corner of Grenfell Street and King William Street.

Born in 1823, New Yorker, Townsend Duryea, arrived in South Australia in 1855 and set up a studio on the corner of Grenfell Street and King William Street. He and his brother Sanford were the first photographers known to have worked outside of Adelaide. In a disaster for both the photographer and South Australia his studio caught fire in the early hours of 18 April 1875. Duryea's entire collection of 60,000 negatives was destroyed.

The Register, reporting on the investigation intothe cause of the fire wrote:
Mr. J. M. Solomon, J.P., on Monday, April 19, held an investigation into the cause of the fire. As the Coroner remarked in summing up, the matter is involved in mystery, and it is just possible that the fire might have resulted from the spontaneous combustion of chemicals used by Mr. Duryea in the prosecution of his business. During the course of the proceedings the Coroner several times checked spectators eager to put questions to witnesses, and stated his view of their position. The Jury returned the following verdict :- "That the premises of Townsend Duryea were destroyed by fire, but that there is not sufficient evidence to show what was its origin." South Australian Register April 1875, p5.

After the fire he moved to New South Wales where he died in 1888.

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