Scholz Park Museum
Riverton, South Australia


click on photo for location map.

"Press your finger on the latch of the door and you will enter an age that is past, an era that has ended, the life-style of our grandparents and great grandparents. Even the latch is the work of my hands, lift it and discover my life and its works".
"The Challenge and the Triumph"

In the centre of Riverton, an unique example of past history is featured in the Scholz Park Museum, which extends over four town allotments.

How did the Scholz Park Museum become established?

IN THE BEGINNING


Scholz Cottage

August Scholz came to Riverton in 1865, nine years after the town was proclaimed, and commenced business as a wheelwright.

During 1872, August Scholz purchased allotments nine and 10 in Torrens Road where he built his residence and the Wheelwright Shop.

A little later, August went into partnership with Williams Sanders who owned the Blacksmith Shop next door.

In 1886, he bought Sanders' business and property and thereafter, with his three sons, carried on the business as wheelwright, blacksmith, machinist and coachbuilder, meeting the needs of the people in the area. Many of the reapers used in this district; the buggies, drays, carts, wagons, trolleys and farm machinery such as ploughs, cultivators, harrows and rollers were manufactured on the premises.

It was a complete family business which also gave employment to many other people.

Unfortunately, the 20th Century and its technological advances took its toll on the business with the doors finally closing in 1966.

Attractive offers were made for Harold and Norman Scholz, the grandsons of August, for this prestigious block of land; offers which involved the destruction of the old building and erecting modern structures.

However, the grandsons, revering the dedication and hard work of their forefathers and desirous of perpetuating a record of the life, industry and resourcefulness of the pioneers, sold it to the District Council of Riverton in 1970 on the understanding that the whole be preserved as a true example of life in a bygone era.

A MUSEUM EMERGES

About the same time as the sale of the property to the District Council of Riverton, the National Trust of South Australia viewed the premises and considered the Blacksmith Shop well worth preserving as many relics of earlier times found there where not retained elsewhere.


The Wheelwright Shop

The property subsequently gained both State Heritage and National Estate listings.

Restoration of the complex and its surrounds commenced during 1978 culminating with the Opening of the Scholz Park Museum on 15th March 1981.

THE MUSEUM

The Scholz Park Museum is one of the comparatively few complete examples of the old, more leisurely way of like, which, although hard, provided more personal satisfaction through individual effort and responsibility, than does the impersonal and regimented way of life today.

It was an absolutely self-contained entity - the cottage where a family of six was raised, adjacent to the Wheelwright and Blacksmith Shops.

The furniture now in the cottage is that which was purchased in the early days by the Scholz family - beautiful cedar pieces, books in English and German, an organ and some attractive old lamps and clocks which showed the family's love for good and fine things which depicted life as they lived it.

There was no need to collect suitable household items from afield; everything was there just as the Scholz family used it.

We hope you enjoy the following pages - and that you come back and see what else we have on offer in the days to come -

Better still do call in and visit if you are travelling through South Australia - we would love to meet you!


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