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Construction of the firm’s stately premises at 236 Mary Street, Gympie, commenced in the early 1880s. However, unlike many of the hastily erected buildings of that period, it was architect-designed and built with hand-made bricks. When construction was completed in 1882, the building was occupied by The Australian Joint Stock Bank. 

After the bank was restructured in 1893, the building was then taken over by The Gympie Stock Exchange with a Men’s Club downstairs. The Gympie Stock Exchange was one of only two Queensland stock exchanges to ever operate outside Brisbane. The other stock exchange operated at Charters Towers.

When production on the Gympie Gold Field peaked in the early 1900s, more than 70 mines were listed on the exchange with 28 brokers operating at the 11 am and 7 pm calls, heralded by the ringing of a large brass bell.

At the 7 pm call, Mary Street was so thronged outside the Stock Exchange with speculators and curious spectators that Mary Street had to be closed to all but pedestrian traffic.

As a result of declining fortunes on the Gympie Gold Field, the Stock Exchange closed, and the Mary Street building changed hands yet again in 1922, when Mr F B Sykes, Solicitor, bought it. The purchase by Mr Sykes was reported in The Gympie Times of the day, wherein the building, with a large, substantial room, was described as being ideal for a solicitor’s office. Proof of this is that it has remained a solicitor’s office ever since 1922.

Neilson Stanton & Parkinson has occupied the premises since 1984. Predecessors of the legal firm include F B Sykes, Geoff C Sykes & Sykes and Sykes, Neilson & Co.

The current partners of Neilson Stanton & Parkinson have been careful to maintain the original character of their heritage-listed building. As a result, a large part of the building looks much the same as it did when the Stock Exchange closed in 1922. Specifically, the building’s remaining features include an intricately designed wrought-iron balustrade on each side of the front steps; roman-like support pillars; very high ceilings; a substantial walk-in bank vault supported by 8 feet of solid sandstone; and a magnificently carved front counter featuring a top made from a slab of hand-sewn fiddle back red cedar.