The Anthony Hordern retail dynasty had humble beginnings; Ann Hordern's stay-making business developed into a drapery and millinery shop at the front of her King Street house.
Husband Anthony's coach building business was at the rear. The business prospered into a fully fledged department store, with The New Palace Emporium opening in 1905, after the previous building had burnt down in 1901. (It has been said that the store was based on the principles of Whiteleys in London).
By the 1920s they operated a mail order department and employed over 3,000 employees. The Anthony Hordern Building and Pavilion were built in 1924.
The History of Anthony Hordern Limited was written by J J Redmond and published in 1938, the 115th anniversary of the shop. It was a revised and enlarged History of the House of Anthony Hordern, first published in 1932.
For the Anniversary year, 50,000 oak seedlings were imported from England in celebration of Anthony Hordern's anniversary. Sydney is still dotted with many of these trees.
The most famous surviving oak was planted by Kathleen McGill in 1938 at the Oaks Hotel, Neutral Bay on Lower North Shore. The current hotel owner distributed further seedlings on the tree's 60th birthday, continuing the Hordern theme "While I live, I'll grow".
The company was taken over by Waltons in 1969 and de-listed in 1970.
In 1985 Lesley Hordern published "Children of One Family. The Story of Anthony & Ann Hordern and their Descendants in Australia 1825-1925."