D&J Fowler Bag Store (fmr) — Streets of Freo

33 Pakenham St (was 75 pre 1938), Fowler Building

This three story brick building, was built by Fremantle architect Frederick William Burwell in 1899 and opened in 1900 for Scottish merchants and brothers; David and James Fowler, who settled in South Australia in 1850. James died in 1858 and David continued to run the wholesale import business in Adelaide, Fremantle and London, with the help of another brother, George.

The Warehouse in Pakenham Street is so large that it went all the way through the block to Henry St - see 38-40 Henry St (was 70-72 pre 1938). This was their storage warehouse with a branch office at 25 Cliff St in 1898 Fowler D & J (G. C. Knight, managing director)

'D & J. Fowler. Ltd' is featured in the pediment at the top with engaged pilasters that extend the height of the building. There are nine large windows that are multi paned and pivot opening and an adjoining single story building on the south side.

It included offices, a warehouse, an engine room, a packing and coffee roasting house, stables and sheds. See images in an article- (link) This warehouse also sustained a fire but was saved by the Fremantle Fire Brigade:

1905 WAREHOUSE ON FIRE. A fire broke out about 3 o'olock on Saturday morning in Messrs. D. and J. Fowler's warehouse in Henry and Packenham streets, Fremantle. The brigade turned out promptly, and extinguished the flames just as they seemed to be getting a good hold of one of the most valuable warehouses in Fremantle. (reference)

In 1982-3 the company was taken over by Southern Farmers Ltd..

In 1982 this building was occupied by Praxis, a performance centre for artists.

PRAXIS was the initiative of Mark Grey-Smith, who generated support for an artist-run gallery that would shake-up the conservative art scene in Perth. The collective moved their operations into a space in Perth, in Murray Mews, in 1975. When that lease expired in 1977… After a brief stint from February 1981, when PRAXIS moved into a shopfront gallery in Manning’s Building on South Terrace - PRAXIS moved to the D&J FOWLER Ltd building at 33-35 Packenham Street, which it shared with another artist collective, NEXUS. An artist-in-residence program sponsored visits by Hossein Valamanesh, David Chesworth, Juan Davila, Peter Tyndall, Barbara Hall, and Cath Cherry, amongst others, and exhibitions by local artists enlivened the galleries. Julian Goddard and Ted Snell worked on the first magazine-style publication, The WA Artworkers Newsletter, which later morphed into PRAXIS/M. Julian also established the PRAXIS Print workshop, ( see list of works here) which produced posters for exhibitions and events. Conversations were intense; the energy was palpable and other groups such as Artemis (a collective of women artists) formed within this milieu… By the late eighties, PRAXIS transformed into the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), taking up residence in the Old Perth Boys School in James Street, Perth in 1989, under Noel Sheridan’s direction. (From RECOMMEND _TED – FRAMING FREMANTLE: PRAXIS January 28, 2021 in Life, Law & Culture, Fremantle Shipping News. (reference)

In the early 1980’s West Australian award winning architect Ralph Drexel and his wife Heather, saw the building was for sale, fell in love with it, and purchased it that week. It was leased to Praxis, a performance arts center, gallery and studio for artists. Later it was partly leased it to Deckchair Theatre.
In the early 2000’s Ralph and Heather Drexel transformed the property into 18 warehouse apartments and 5/33 Pakenham Street became their families Fremantle weekend home.