East Melbourne, Gipps Street 128, 130, 132, Nepean Terrace
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A terrace of three two storey houses in Regency style. The brick facade is unpainted and there is a timber verandah.
This regency style terrace, with its distinctive timber verandah, was built in 1863 for Henry Dyer, lime and cement merchant, as an investment. Dyer lived with his family around the corner at 121 Powlett Street.
Among tenants living in the terrace was Mme. Berthe Mouchette, an artist who ran life classes for female students in her studio behind 128 in the early 1880s. In 1885 she bought Oberwyl in St. Kilda, a leading girl's school which later moved to the country and was re-named Clyde. She ran Oberwyl until 1894. No. 132 was home briefly to Frederick Baker, now better known as Federici, the ghost of the Princess Theatre. He was living there in 1888 when he died so spectacularly during a performance of Faust. In the role of Mephistopheles he was singing the final solo while descending through a trapdoor in the floor when he collapsed.
The terrace was one of the first buildings to be placed on the register of the Historic Buildings, but during the 1970s the Mercy Hospital was in expansion mode and had the whole block down to Powlett Street eyed off for eventual purchase, demolition and redevelopment. It purchased 132 and applied to have it removed from the register. This was refused. The hospital had just finished a planning battle over the site next door which had resulted in their plans for a fourteen storey nurses home being reduced to a low level, landscaped car park, and Crathre on the other side of the terrace was the subject of another planning dispute. The hospital accepted that the climate had changed and that any future plans for expansion would be keenly fought and unlikely to succeed.
Owners:
1863-1869: Henry Dyer, lime and cement merchant. He died 1869.
1869-1902: Mary Brown, widow of Henry Dyer. She married Gavin Brown, stockbroker.
1902-1904: Children of Henry Dyer.
1904-1926: Frank Gold, proprietor of Anchor Nailworks, Bridge Road, Richmond.
1926-1949: Frank Gold executors
1949-1960+: Caron and Vera Joyce Kent. Vera was a medical practitioner and used No. 132 as her rooms from 1953, while living at No. 130.
Occupiers:
No. 128 (Previously 3 Nepean Terrace):
1866: Muir
1867: Vacant
1870: Vacant
1875: Mrs. Brock
1880: Mrs. Simeon
1881-1882: Mme. Berthe Mouchette, artist. She built a studio behind the property where she taught life classes. In 1885 she bought Oberwyl, a leading ladies' school in St. Kilda, and ran it until 1894. She founded the Alliance Francaise in 1890. Her sister, Mlle. M. Leon, who took French classes at the house, lived with her.
1888-90: Edmund T. Higgins, medical practitioner.
1895: Miss Kate Rooke
1900: Alexander K Stewart
1905-10: Constance Lord
1915-20: Eileen Rogers
1925: B...a[?] Turner
1930: Vacant
1931-1945: Violet Shiels
1950: [multiple]
1960: Vacant
No. 130 (Previously 2 Nepean Terrace):
1866: Fraser
1867: Malleson
1870: McPherson
1875: Angus Mackay
1880: John Morse
1888: U.G. Nicholas
1890: John K. Robertson
1895: Miss Eliza May
1900: Augustus Mansford
1905-1910: Constance Lord
1915-1920: Eileen Rogers
1925: Myra Rogers
1930-1940: Teresa Higgins
1945: [?]
1950-1960+: Caron and Vera Joyce Kent among others
No. 132 (Previously 1 Nepean Terrace):
1866-1867: John Dickson
1870: S. Evans
1875: Mrs. Raleigh
1880: Alexander Black
1888: Herbert Fleming, actor and manager. He performed all over the world; Frederick Baker, known professionally as Federici, singer. On 3 March 1888, playing in Faust in the role of Mephistopheles at the Princess Theatre, he died as he sang the final solo while descending via a trapdoor through the stage floor. His ghost is supposed to haunt the Princess Theatre.
1890 A. McHarg
1895: C.W. Beddome
1900-1905: William Clark Steel
1910: William Growsmith [?]
1915: Anne Gold
1920-1925: Alice May Wright
1930: Thomas March [?]
1935: Alexander Kerr
1940-1945: Gladys Negland/Hyland [?]
1950: [multiple]
1953-1960+: Vera Joyce Kent, medical rooms
Burchett, Winston, East Melbourne 1837-1977 people place problems. Craftsman Press, 1978
City of Melbourne, Burchett Index, No. 388, 14 Sept 1863
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