On 15 March 1881 Charles Webb, architect, advertised for tenders to erect three two-storey houses in Hotham Street. Possibly this was a mistake, or else there was a quick change of plan, because on 5 April 1881 the owner of the land, the Hon WJ Clarke, gave notice to the City Council that he intended to build three three-storey houses.  David Mitchell was the builder.  Mitchell has become famous as the father of Dame Nellie Melba but was one of Melbourne’s foremost builders and often worked with Charles Webb.  Tasma Terrace (1878) was one such collaboration.  The houses were finished within the year with them being advertised for rent in November 1881.

WJT Clarke had purchased the land on which Janet Terrace stands at the Crown land auctions of 6 October 1853.  He died in 1874 and the land was inherited by his eldest son William John Clarke, later Sir, after his appointment as Australia’s first, and only, hereditary baronet.  Clarke built Janet Terrace as an investment and never lived there.  In 1886 he built for himself and his family the vast residence on the corner of Wellington Parade and Clarendon Street known as Cliveden.  Janet Terrace was named after his second wife, and Cliveden was said to be named after their son.  There is ongoing debate as to whether the name should be pronounced to rhyme with ‘hive’ or with ‘heave’. After Sir William’s death in 1897 the Janet Terrace was bequeathed to his wife, Lady Janet, and his eldest son, Sir Rupert.  

In 1908 the houses were sold to Benjamin and Elizabeth Sheppard of 102 Albert Street, East Melbourne.  Benjamin kept a restaurant known as ‘Sheppard’s National Restaurant, 189-191 Bourke Street.  After his death in 1913 the houses passed into the ownership of Josephine, Benjamin’s second wife, and his son, Benjamin Joseph. In 1924 Josephine became the sole owner and in 1941 she gifted the property to her daughter, Josephine Mary Moon.  The houses continued to be rented out and were usually advertised as flats. 

One of Janet Terrace’s more interesting tenants was Francis Augustus Hare, Police Magistrate.  Hare was born in 1830 in South Africa, in a village just out of Capetown, the youngest son in a family of 17 children. He arrived in Australia in 1852 and spent time at the diggings before joining the Victorian Mounted Police in 1854. His work brought him up against many bushrangers but most especially was his involvement in the capture of Ned Kelly.  During his last years in the force he was officer-in-charge of the of the barracks on the corner of Punt Road and Wellington Parade, until its closure in 1881.  On retirement he took up residence at 96 Hotham Street.  His wife happened to be the aunt of Janet, Lady Clarke, and it is quite possible that the couple lived there rent-free.  Hare died in 1892 at Rupertswood, the Clarke’s country property, where they had been caring for him for three months.  [see link to Hare’s obituary below]

The houses were subdivided and sold separately about 1963. It was after this that No 96 was ‘modernised’ and the verandahs were built in.  Recently this work has been reversed and the houses are once again a matching set.