Crump opened the Crump General Store in 1904 and sold everything from groceries, crockery, linen and hardware to stock feed and farm supplies. Although the prominent Dandenong business’s store front was in Lonsdale Street, the lane was a bustling hub of activity where goods were loaded and unloaded at the rear of the store.
Customers would come up the laneway and park their horse and buggy in stables. The lane accommodated many businesses, including one of the early coach-building businesses and the mortuary of J.W. Garnar’s undertakers.
Crump’s delivered grocery orders around the district via a horse-drawn lorry and when customers unpacked their box there would always be a free paper cornet filled with boiled lollies.
Right on the corner of Walker and Langhorne streets was the slip rail to the farrier’s shop and forge, and in the other end of the Langhorne Street frontage was the blacksmith’s forge and wheelwright’s shop.
Young children could be seen standing at the slip rail to watch in fascination as the farrier forged the shoes and shod the horses.
Crump’s prided itself on being the ‘popular store’ with exceptional quality of goods. After John Crump’s death, his son Albert Crump operated the store with the help of wife Hazel. In those days there was no cash register and no refrigeration – butter and other perishables were stored in a cellar.
A large billboard once adorned the wall at the entrance to Crump Lane – it advertised films at the local Boomerang Theatre and notified people of events taking place at the Dandenong Town Hall opposite.
The site occupied by the Crump General Store later became the McEwans hardware store.
Info courtesy of "Dandenong and District Historical Society"
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