East Melbourne, Grey Street 067

The house, known originally as Inverbreakie Cottage, was built for Donald McKenzie by John Bennell in 1861. The following year a kitchen was added, and it appears in the rate books for that year as a three roomed house plus kitchen. When Donald, a clerk with the Bank of New South Wales, moved in with his wife, Elizabeth (known as Betsey), they already had two small children. Three more were born in East Melbourne and it seems that the house grew with the family.

By 1885 when they eventually sold it the number of rooms had grown to six. In 1883 Mrs McKenzie was the victim of an attempted rape while walking home through the Fitzroy Gardens. Whether this had anything to do with the couple leaving East Melbourne it is not possible to say. Elizabeth had been described as a ‘diffident’ woman and the experience may well have made her nervous enough to want to leave the area. Whatever the reason they did leave soon afterwards, moving to Brighton and renting the Grey Street house out for a short time before selling it.

Bear Rapiport was the next owner. He renamed the house Athlone and he added two more rooms. His builder, William Weir, invited tenders for ‘plastering and cementing additions to villa’ in January 1886 and followed with an advertisement for a ‘man to clean up garden’. Rapiport's career was one of highs and lows. He married Maria Louisa Marks in 1858. He was at the time a pawnbroker. In 1865 while working in partnership with Solomon Benjamin as Benjamin and Rapiport, merchants, he was declared insolvent. In 1878 his father-in-law, Casper Marks, was declared insolvent citing the cause as having become security for his son-in-law, Bear Rapiport, and was liable for the amount of £8,727.13s.1d.

Yet Bear was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and Honorary Magistrate, in 1885. This was the year he moved into East Melbourne and by this time he had been totally blind for nearly 20 years. In 1893 he was elected Councillor to the City of Melbourne for Gipps Ward. But in 1896 things went downhill again. He was accused of taking bribes in order to make favourable judgements in his capacity as magistrate. Mr Lormer had sued Fosters over infringing a trademark. The magistrate, Bear Rapiport, found in favour of Fosters. Mr Lormer then accused Rapiport of receiving a box of beer in advance of the case. Other similar offences were cited but when the case came to court and the chief witness was asked if she was prepared to testify she said she was not and the case was dismissed as there was no evidence. But Mr Rapiport had been forced to resign his position as both magistrate and councillor as a result of the case.

He died two years later leaving an estate of £15 which did not include the house, which must have been in Mrs Rapiport’s name as she continued to live there. She apparently decided to leave the past behind her, changing the name of the house from Athlone to Pretoria, and taking in boarders. She did this until 1909, when she sold up the furnishings and moved to Sydney where she died in 1913.

The house remained in the hands of her executors until about 1922 when it was sold to Miss Ada Hewitt. Ada Hewitt was living across the road at 64 Grey Street at the time of her purchase. She rented No 67 out before moving in with her two sisters, Annie and Hettie, in 1934. The three of them lived there until their deaths, Hettie being the last to die in 1955.

The house was then sold to Alex Graeme Bond, medical practitioner and his family. The house was last sold in 2011 and from the floor plan at the time it is possible to understand how the house grew. Originally in 1862 it was a simple square with a passage down the centre with rooms off each side and a verandah across the facade. Circa 1865 the verandah was built in to become a transverse passage and two rooms were added to the front. A return verandah led down the side to the new front door leading into the transverse passage. These last two rooms are what now remains of Donald McKenzie’s house.