Frederick Cook had bought the land on which the house sat at the Crown Land Sales on 25 May 1853, ten months later building commenced. He and his family moved in on completion and two more children were born in the short time the family remained there.

The house was advertised for sale in February 1857 when it was described as:- ... that handsome and commodious cottage known as Cumberland Cottage, containing dining-room, drawing-room, three bed rooms, one dressing-room, store, pantry, nursery, large kitchen, servants' room, and numerous othor conveniences. ... . It has also a very neat garden well stocked with the choicest flowers, &c.

It failed to sell and later in the year Leonard Terry, architect, advertised for tenders 'for the ERECTION of OUTBUILDINGS to the Residence of Frederick Cook, Esq., East Melbourne'. It was again advertised to sell or let in early 1858. By 1869 Edwin Richard Elliott had become owner and occupier. He renamed the house Grafton Villa.

In 1888 he advertised his household furniture for sale and moved out. It was briefly rented as extra accomodation by the Home for Neglected Children, an institution run by Scots Church. In 1890 the house was sold in a mortgagee's auction when it was described as:- ... that very commodious residence. Grafton-villa. containing seven rooms, servant's room, kitchen, scullery, &c. The front garden is enclosed with a brick wall, and has a tiled walk. The back yard is also tiled.

From at least 1897 to 1906 it was the home of Randolph Bedford, writer and politician. His home became a centre for the Bohemians of the day, including the Lindsays and the Dysons. With these and others he founded the Ishmael Club which met sometimes at his house and sometimes at Fasoli's restaurant in the city. It was Bedford who renamed the house 'White Feather' named after the name of a gold mine in Western Australia with which he had some connection.

It then became a boarding house and the street number changed to 141. In early 1916, after the outbreak of WWI, the name was modified to White Heather. But by 1921 it had reverted to the earlier name when it was again advertised for sale:- The Brick Residence, known as ‘White Feather,” No. 141 Grey Street East Melbourne, containing 10 rooms, &c., kitchen, scullery, and bathroom of wood and iron, and large quadrangle, glass-roofed, fernery, on land 66 x 165, the whole forming a suitable property for alteration into a residential flat proposition.

Shortly after the house was demolished and new flats built. The building retained the name White Feather. In 1928 it was the scene of a murder when a man broke into the flat of the building's owner and resident manager, Mrs. Daisy Ledger, and fatally stabbed her. He fled when the victim's son came to intervene and was found later having cut his own throat and wrists. He claimed when arrested, that he 'loved her'. The flats, too, have been demolished and the site is now occupied by medical consulting rooms.