East Melbourne, Powlett Street 059, 061, Enfield Place
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This is an imposing pair of polychromatic brick terraces set high above the street with two storey cast iron verandahs and fine moulded architraves to openings. No. 61 is particularly intact with rear stables and fine side fence of corrugated iron. The substantial cast iron palisade fence with cast posts and wrought complement the elegantly composed buildings. The bluestone steps and fine tessellated tile verandah surfaces are intact. [City of Melbourne, i-Heritage database]
This pair of houses known as Enfield Place were built by William Rankin in 1872 for Robert Elwall Jacomb, official assignee. It was to him that an insolvent's assets were transferred, or assigned, for distribution to creditors. Jacomb and his wife lived next door at 53 Powlett Street. The houses were designed by well-known architects, Crouch and Wilson, who designed a number of houses in East Melbourne including Thornbury, 188 George Street; Merton, 17 Powlett Street and Nepean Terrace, 128-132 Gipps Street.
The houses remained in the ownership of the Jacomb family until 1967. At the time of Jacomb's death the properties were valued at £2600, No. 59 was rented at £90 per annum, and No. 61 at £96. They then passed to his wife, Anne, who died in 1915 when the properties passed to their daughter, Lucy. Lucy died in 1936 leaving the houses in trust to her sister, nephews and niece and managed by her nephew, Russell Kinpman Foster until sold in 1967. By this time they had been converted to apartments.
The next owners were Toorak investors, Giorgio Romano Santoro, medical practitioner, and his wife, Susan Hamilton Santoro. They owned the properties for only three years before selling to Kathleen Richman.
Kathleen Richman has entered East Melbourne folklore as the ‘pram lady’. Neighbours did not know her name then, or anything else about her but she was frequently seen on the streets of East Melbourne and Richmond fossicking in the rubbish bins. Her old wicker pram was filled with bottles, and more bags of bottles were tied to its exterior, all on their way to the brewery for sale and re-use. A changing flotilla of dogs accompanied her. She only stopped when the Council introduced a glass re-cycling scheme and bottles were crushed rather than re-used.
Born in 1905 as Kathleen Romelli she grew up in the Wimmera and became a tailoress. After moving to Melbourne she met and married James Henry Richman, formerly a seaman and waterside worker, but by then a labourer and truck-driver. After inheriting some money after the death of her parents in the 1950s she invested in a property on the corner of Jolimont Road and Jolimont Street which comprised two houses (102 Jolimont Road and 96 Jolimont Street). Later, after separating from her husband, she moved in to one of the houses. Around 1972 she sold the property to the Victorian Football League and it became VFL (later AFL) House, and bought the Powlett Street houses. She lived at No 59 and later sold No. 61.
After her death in 1987 her house was sold and witnesses still remember the seemingly endless stream of rubbish that was brought out. Even the real estate ad described it as ‘unoccupied, untidy and tired’. Nevertheless it sold for $570,000. It was one of four valuable parcels of real estate she owned at her death, along with cash accounts, term deposits and mortgage loans. Her estate was valued for probate at $1,636,374.73 but was in fact worth far more.
Owners
1872-1902: Robert Elwall Jacomb, official assignee, Bank Place, Melbourne, and later liquidator of the City of Melbourne Bank. He lived next door [now no. 53]. Died 29 mar 1902.
1902-1915: Anne Russell Jacomb (nee Ker), wife of Robert. She died 1915.
1915-1936: Lucy Jacomb, daughter of above
1936-c.1967: Estate of Lucy Jacomb (Trustee Russell Kinpman Foster[RB 1967/68], nephew, died 1976 )
1968-1971: George Romano Santoro and Susan Hamilton Santoro
1972-1987: Kathleen Richman, she died 1987 (61 sold earlier but after 1975)
Occupiers,
59
1873-1879: James Smith
1880-1885: A. Ross
1890: D. Crawford
1895: John Murray
c.1900-1904: William Elsdon, general manager and engineer in chief of the Victorian Railways, and wife Mary. Elsdon was brought to Melbourne in 1855 by the Hobson's Bay Railway Co. on the recommendation of George Stephenson, who had worked with him at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was only 20 years old but immediately set about developing the company. One of his early achievements was the construction of a pier at Sandridge (Port Melbourne)which allowed cargo to be unloaded and taken to Melbourne by rail, rather than ships having to unload into lighters while moored in Hobson's Bay. The lighters then transported the cargo up the river. 'The engineer had a trying time in December 1863 when the greatest flood on record occurred and a sea of water spread itself over the land from the St Kilda road and Princes bridge to Port Melbourne. Mr Elsdon had to go about for days in a boat and he did not “take his clothes off” for a week.' In 1880 the Government took over the Hobson's Bay Co. and Elsdon was appointed general manager and engineer in chief. However after a change of Government and political interference blocking his proposed reforms, he resigned. He next involved himself in coal and became director of several companies in Newcastle, NSW. He died in 1904 [Argus, 11 Mar 1904, p.6]
1905: Mary Elsdon, wife of above
c.1910-1912: Joseph Kynvin Lotherington, secretary Howard Smith & Co., steamship owners: and his wife, Emma Louise Lotherington. He died 6 Nov 1912.
1912-1928: Emma Louise Lotherington, wife of above, died 4 Aug 1928, aged 96.
c.1950-c.1969: Alice May Hynes
1965-1971: Apartments
1972-1987: Kathleen Richman, manageress [E]
Occupiers,
61
1873-1889: John Byron Milton, of John B. Milton, tailors, 54 Collins Street. One of first businesses established in Collins Street. He died 1891. [Death notice said Barrow, will said Byron??]
1890: Mrs. Farrington
1895-c.1900: Horace Hodgkinson
1915: William Stanley Bennett, clerk; Annie Bennett, h/d;
c.1945: Annie Shaw Dickins, widow of C R Dickins. Died 21 Oct 1945 of ....but late of 61 etc.
1964: various
1967: Russell Kinpman Foster, nephew of Lucy Jacomb, late owner.
1968: vacant
1969-1971: Elizabeth Anne Buchanan
1972-1973: vacant
1973: Vivien Burton Broadbent, comp. prog.; Amelia Ferguson, h/d; Jean Fraser, linenkeeper; Ronald William Griffiths, sheet metal worker. [E]
Burchett Index, City of Melbourne Notices of Intent to Build, 19 Dec 1871, Reg. No. 4665, Argus, 17 Nov 1871, Tenders John Byron Milton's will, 46/778. VPRS 7591; P2; 184
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