An entry from our Summer Reading competition.

HILARY SILBERT is the granddaughter of Barney Silbert and daughter of Eric Silbert. The Silbert’s shoe store on the corner of what’s now the High Street Mall, was an institution in Fremantle for many decades.

ONCE a household name: Barney Silbert,  the person and the landmark in Fremantle. 

“Meet you at Barney’s Corner” was the phrase used when Barney Silbert’s Shoe Store was on the high-profile corner of High and Market Streets. 

If you looked up to the first floor, you saw the signage Barney Silbert’s Corner painted in the window, arranged by son Eric in time for the America’s Cup Challenge. 

Today Barney Silbert is immortalised in beautiful terrazzo flooring as you enter the chocolate shop Coal River Farm.

So who was the personality behind the name? 

Barney, originally Berel, was born in Russia, the youngest child of Tamara and Jacob Silbert.

By the age of four, his mother had died. 

As a teenager of 17, he left Europe alone, to join family in Fremantle. His voyage on the Karlsruhe is commemorated on Panel 99 on the Welcome Wall at Fremantle Harbour.

Commencing work on the WA Goldfields with his brother in law, the owner of Silbert and Sharpe, Fruit and Vegetable Merchants, this European, immigrant teenager was to become a popular figure in Fremantle. 

The first business presence involving Barney was 94 High Street, on the corner of Pakenham Street. 

A shop known as Dainty Lady sold giftware, watches and even imported china that his fiancée, Minnie Masel, painted to brighten up the plain crockery of the day.

A year after marriage, in 1914, Barney and Minnie Silbert bought land on the south side of Ellen Street, and were allowed an 80 foot frontage and 3/8ths of an acre to build the Federation house that exists to this day. 

Originally number 74, it is heritage listed as number 55. 

A close friend and Ellen Street neighbour was Fred Samson. 

They shared an interest in rose growing and would together purchase the rose bushes from the nursery.

Barney’s son Eric described the Ellen Street garden. 

“The house was surrounded by an English garden of citrus trees, dahlias, grapes, arum lilies, jasmine, black-eyed susan, german lilac, and 100 roses from Newman’s Nursery.”

Barney was awarded First Prize for the Fremantle Inter Districts Garden Competition in 1935. 

From the verandah the family could see the port, and could use WA’s largest playing field: Fremantle Oval which included the croquet, bowling and tennis clubs. 

They could also hear the sounds of residents in the nearby asylum, now the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Barney and Minnie successfully ran Barney Silbert’s Shoe Store, surviving the Depression, World War II and had even expanded the business by acquiring neighbouring sites. 

All this whilst Barney had received very little formal education, had little English language on arrival, and no business training. 

He was an original member of the Fremantle Businessmen’s Association in 1919, becoming treasurer, and was actively involved with the Ugly Men’s Association. 

This was a uniquely Western Australian charity group who raised funds and built houses for World War I widows. 

Barney was a trustee and foundation member of the Fremantle Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, a lodge located in High Street. 

After World War II, Barney was involved in the Advance Fremantle Association.

The business was to sponsor both a yacht race off Fremantle with the Barney Silbert’s Cup and, South Fremantle and East Fremantle Football Clubs. 

Barney had been a roller skater and a rower and then joined Fremantle Bowling Club as a keen and competent player, only having to walk across the road from his home. 

He joined in 1919, was in a team that competed in NSW in 1931 and won the Glick Trophy in 1935. 

His passion for lawn bowls saw him design a new item of clothing: a sleeveless pullover that he interested a manufacturer and had them made in cream for bowlers. 

A first in fashion! He sold them in others colours in the shop, for general wear.

He was one of the first people in the metropolitan area with a car: a Wiley’s Overland Tourer, number 124, which he drove as an ambulance during World War I.

Cars and their owners were listed in the newspaper of the day.

Barney certainly was a personality. 

Customers went to the Silbert Shoe Store to buy a pair of shoes and stayed unscheduled hours listening to his stories. 

His sense of humour had him walking into the street one day, and looking up. 

Passers by also stared into the sky. 

When there was a crowd, he walked back inside! 

He would park his car outside the shop and when a policeman told Mr Silbert there was a No Parking sign, Barney bent down and said “ Who wrote that sign under my car?”

Barney Silbert was also known for his empathy and decency. 

The Wilson family and Ken in particular, were aware of this side of his character. 

Ken was the seventh child of a family of nine. 

The Depression and his father Alexander’s poor health meant that in 1935, aged 14, he had to leave school to become a shop boy for Barney.

Ken, who borrowed shoes for his interview, believed his employer was a good business man and excellent tutor, often kind to him and his family. 

In 1938 when Ken’s father died suddenly, Barney opened the shop on that Sunday to dress the family for the funeral and then paid Ken an extra five shillings a week. 

This extra money in the little yellow pay envelope was given to Mrs Wilson by Ken and she told Ken to take it back as he had been over paid. 

He hadn’t and Barney insisted.

So one colourful character Barney Silbert. 

Very much part of the fabric of Fremantle, and I think he would be amused to walk over the terrazzo floor and the words Barney Silbert, to buy chocolate!