The house was built for William Phillips in 1869. Phillips was an iron moulder at the Victoria Foundry, Victoria Street, Carlton, and it is probably he who designed and cast the unusual iron brackets to the front verandah. He and his family remained there for twenty years, advertising it for sale in 1889 as, "SUBSTANTIAL BRICK COTTAGE Known as CHARLESTON VILLA In Victoria parade, near Simpson street, Having a frontage cf 67ft by a depth of 167ft. It contains dining room, drawingroom, and four bedrooms, and (of wood) two rooms, bathroom, and pantry, with two stall stable and fowl house at rear. This is a desirable and well finished cottage, with neat verandah at front and rear. It is in perfect order, having been newly painted throughout." [Argus, 22 Jan 1889, p.3] It had not always been in perfect order. In 1883 the front drawing room was seriously damaged by a gas explosion. The window and front door were shattered, the ceiling cracked, the bulbs in the chandelier splintered, and the partition wall was put out of the perpendicular. William Phillips, meanwhile, suffered scorching to the face and neck, cuts to the face and hands, and singed hair and whiskers. Until the early 1900s this was the only house in the block between Trinity School on the Hoddle Street corner and the Congregational Church (now St. Nicholas Antiochian Church)on the Simpson Street corner.