current name of the building: Signs Publishing Company
location: Warburton
design by: Edward Bilson
date of commission: 1934
date of completion: 1935
type: Factory (Imdustry)
listing/protection: RAIA National Register 2003; Heritage Register of Victoria No. H0619; National Trust State level file No. G13039
address 3485 Warburton Highway 3799
editor fiche: Peter Johnson (2009)
download Fiche: Signs Publishing Company (Pdf)
The Signs Publishing Company first began as the Echo Publishing Company, in North Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne. By 1889 the Echo Publishing Company employed 83 people and was the third largest Seventh-day Adventist publishing house in the world. In 1906 the business moved to Warburton. Changing its name to the Signs Publishing Company it remained in its new premises until 1934, when a severe flood in the valley ruined a large part of the machinery and building. In 1935 a new brick factory was built on higher ground for £23,000.