Welcome
Welcome to the East Melbourne Historical Society.
East Melbourne is a tiny suburb adjoining the city of Melbourne bounded by Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens to the west, Victoria Parade to the north, Hoddle Street to the east and Yarra Park to the south, home of the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground. East Melbourne was included in Robert Hoddle's original 1837 plan for the city but the first private house was not built until 1853. The suburb today reflects a history of Victoria with its beautiful gardens, grand houses of the gold rush era and workmen's cottages. Cast iron lacework adorns the houses, bluestone cobbled lanes lead to old coach houses and brick dunnies. Artists, scientists, politicians, judges, educators, priests, explorers, entrepreneurs, courtesans, philanthropists and social activists lived here and many a tale is told of characters wild and exotic.
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Recent articles
Policing East Melbourne
In 1883 the Police Department rented a house on a wide block of land in Darling Street, East Melbourne. This house would become the residence of the sergeant-in-charge of the new police station. Next door, on the undeveloped part of the land, a small two-roomed, wooden office was erected, and a separate lavatory.
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James Sinclair and his Cottage
In the centre of the Fitzroy Gardens is a cottage almost invisible behind its overgrown garden but it is an interesting little house and worth a more careful look. It was designed in 1866 by Francis Maloney White as the gardener’s cottage. Its first occupant was James Sinclair and hence it is now known as Sinclair’s Cottage.
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- 767 reads
More than a Kindergarten
An interesting side-light on the changing demographic of Melbourne in the years after the second world war was the decision to relocate the existing City Free Kindergarten in Exhibition Street (on the corner of Little Lonsdale Street) to Powlett Reserve in East Melbourne.
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Jolimont and Repatriation
By 1917 it was apparent that repatriation services for returning service men and women were inadequate. Soldiers were arriving back in the country in large numbers, most of them damaged by illness or injury. Many of them would not be able to return to their pre-war occupations.
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The Curious Mr Stanford: from East Melbourne to California
Thomas Welton Stanford arrived in Melbourne in 1860 to make money. He achieved this by quickly securing the sole licence to import Singer sewing machines. But it is not for his business success that he is primarily known.
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Forthcoming activities
Recent acquisitions
Attribution, Pedigree and Legacy: interpreting 190 George Street, East Melbourne
An historical and architectural study of 190 George Street, East Melbourne. Includes information about the original owner and her family, subsequent owners, the architect and stylistic influences.
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The Sporting Precinct, c.1973
This view of the sporting precinct and Jolimont was taken circa 1973. It shows the extensive changes that have happened to the area since.
Starting at the bottom of the image and working south towards the river, the first thing to notice is that on the site of the landmark Cliveden Mansions construction of the Hilton on the Park, now the Pullman Hotel, is still underway.
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East Melbourne Library, 2003
Colour photo of the old East Melbourne library. It was built in 1964 and demolished to make way for a new library.
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East Melbourne, Wellington Parade 108, Tullyvallin
Auction brochure for the sale of Thorlinda, 108 Wellington Parade dated 8 October 1918.
Original is part of the Sydney Arnold Best Collection, Melbourne University Archives
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