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
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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Pros and (Mod) Cons
In aid of the Red Cross and War Comforts Funds Melbourne City Council has transformed the Treasury Gardens into a Garden City with an extensive lighting scheme. It will be open on Monday at 1 p.m. for one month, with daily sessions from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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Bedggood: Friendly Footwear
Daniel Bedggood arrived in Melbourne in 1854. Almost immediately he set up a boot and shoe factory in Richmond. A successful business from the start, succeeding generations kept it going and his son, John, oversaw the transition to a new and bigger factory in Jolimont, at 22 Agnes Street, in 1899.
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Yarra Park State School Comes Back To Life
Yarra Park State School In East Melbourne was located in a very prominent position - the intersection of Punt Road and Bridge Road. The building that still occupies the site and which housed the former school is familiar to generations of Melburnians who have passed through that intersection on the busy roads north-south and east-west.
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Mary Gilbert: Melbourne's First Mother
There has been much publicity lately about the large imbalance in the numbers of statues of men as opposed to women in Melbourne. A google search puts it at 580 to 10! One of these ten statues is in the Conservatory in the Fitzroy Gardens, hidden away amongst the foliage.
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Recent acquisitions
Eastern Hill from Parliament House
A colour tinted postcard with a wide white border. It was printed in Saxony for the Victoria Stamp Market (V St M). The message on the back of the card is dated 23 February 1910. This is probably about the time the card was printed.
The photo was taken from the roof of Parliament House and shows a view of Eastern Hill looking towards Fittzroy.
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Eastern Hill Fire Station
A black and white postcard published by Robert Jolley, Melbourne. It is postmarked Hamilton 14 November 1906, but is earlier as from 1905 all postcards were printed with a vertical line down the centre, allowing for a message on one side and the address on the other. This postcard has no vertical line.
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Parliament House Library
A black and white postcard of Parliament House c.1905. It was printed in Prussia as part of the Victoria Stamp Market (VSM) Series.
Australia introduced the divided back on postcards in 1905. This allowed a message and the address to be written side by side.
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Parcels Van 10CM at Jolimont Railway yards, c.1972
Colour photo of Parcels Van 10CM parked in Jolimont Railway Yards, (sidings). The MCG is visible in the background providing a useful landmark. The land was sold to a private developer in the 1980s and became the residential precinct known as Wellington Gardens, East Melbourne.
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Sketch map of Melbourne by Charles Joseph La Trobe, c.1840
This sketch map by Charles Joseph La Trobe marks in pink his own estate known as Jolimont.
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Forthcoming activities
St Patrick's Cathedral: its history and architecture
Conservation architect, Arthur Andronas, has worked on the restoration and upgrading of St Patrick's Cathedral and has extensive knowledge of its history and architecture.
He will share with us some insights and little known facts about the cathdral which his work has revealed.
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