East Melbourne, Powlett Street 071

On 17 October 1874 [Thomas] Boyle notified the Melbourne City Council of his intention to have William Weir, of Clifton Hill build him a two storey house.[1] Three days later Weir advertised for tenders from rubblewallers and bricklayers and by May 1875 Thomas Boyle, now residing at Powlett Street, gave notice that he would apply for a grocer’s licence in those same premises.[2][3]

He died only 18 months later leaving his widow, Hannah, to continue the business. In March 1882 she applied for ‘a certificate authorising the issue of a special temporary grocer’s licence’. The advertisement in The Argus was listed under Publicans’ Licences, so possibly this was the first time the shop became licensed to sell alcohol.[4]

Around 1911 Hannah retired from the business and it was taken over by Hennessy Bros who already had a similar business on the corner of Bridge Road and Lennox Street, Richmond.[5] J J Hennessy bought the freehold on Hannah’s death in 1913. Her probate papers described the property as ‘Brick building. Shop, Hall, Drawing-room, and Kitchen on ground floor, and five rooms – bathroom and balcony upstairs. Also (in yard) brick store, stable and loft. Known as Numbers 69 and 71 Powlett Street.’[6]

In 1917 John Hennessy transferred the licence to Alfred Tennyson Davidson who himself transferred the licence to Herbert Stanley Lee in 1920 and by 1923 it was in the hands of Horace Hewitt.[7][8][9] It was Hewitt who wrought considerable change upon the building. In 1930 he commissioned architect W H Merritt to make additions.[10] What these were is uncertain and perhaps they were never completed because in 1933 I G Anderson, on behalf of Horace Hewitt, tendered ‘for the erection of brick, tile and cement flats’.[11] Soon after Hewitt registered a company in the name of Powlett Mansions Pty Ltd with five shareholders being himself, his wife and his three children.[12] Horace Hewitt died in 1944 but the shop and the flats remained in his estate until put up for sale in 1952.[13]

Running the shop had not been without its dangers over the years. In 1921 Herbert Lee was held up at gun point as he left the shop one night and robbed of the day’s takings of £80, and in 1933 under the ownership of Horace Hewitt the shop was broken into and ‘cocktails, cigarettes, and tobacco, to the total value of £36’ were stolen.[14][15]