DROYLSDEN House had been a fixture in Horsham's CBD for 30 years before it nearly became the scene of a tragedy.
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On Saturday April 13, 1957, a man armed with a high-powered rifle climbed on top of Horsham's water tower.
The Horsham Times later reported he shot at "anything that moved", injuring a 28-year-old man on his verandah and damaging a moving car with two people inside.
"Another bullet smashed through a window of dentist Mr R. Sim's house in Baillie Street, half a mile away and struck a wall above a sleeping baby," the article the following Monday read.
"The bullet ricocheted five times around the room before falling on the floor."
A 24-year-old laborer named Eamon Moloney appeared in Ballarat Court over the shooting the following week.
It was a dramatic episode in Droylsden's proud history of housing important services for the Wimmera.
PROPERTY NEWS: Droylsden House has possibilities for a flexible future
The two-storey house was built in 1927, with the shopfront added later while dentist Russell Sims owned the property.
In his 2019 book The John and Elizabeth Smith Family History 1872 - 2018, Peter Ackroyd writes the house was built by Sid Smith and wife Clara, who lived in the house for more than 20 years. Their three children, Joan, Enid and Sidney, completed their schooling in Horsham.
"On Friday evenings the family and friends would meet at Droylsden to play billiards in the specially-reinforced room upstairs," he wrote. "The builders recalled that railway iron was incorporated into the building to allow for the full-sized, heavy billiard table."
After its time as a dentist's residence, the building became the permanent headquarters of the Goolum Goolum Aboriginal co-operative in 1987.
On May 18 of that year, the Mail-Times reported the co-operative paid almost $250,000 for the building.
Then-Aboriginal Development Commissioner John Atkinson told the paper: "The acquisition of social facilities such as Droylsden will improve the self-esteem of Aboriginal people and encourage their self-determination and self-management."
The building fell into disrepair and was targeted by vandals after Goolum Goolum left in 2006 - the co-operative is now based out of Hamilton Street.
Horsham Real Estate's Nola Brown said the owner of Droylsden, who did not live in Horsham, purchased the property in 2016.
The front annex has become an allied health clinic where psychologists, speech pathologists and remedial massage therapists practice. Ms Brown said there was one residential tenant in the house.
"(The owner) has taken the opportunity to sell thinking there could be a buyer that lives in the house and works at the front, or an investor that gets income from the tenants," she said.
"Most of the interest has been from investors so far."
The application period for the tender for Droylsden House closed on December 18.
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