East Melbourne, Wellington Parade South 039, 041

These two houses were built for William Brooks Hoffman by F R Ratten and designed by William H Cleverdon. William Henry Cleverdon (1855-1930) was born in Richmond. After his marriage to Emma Toon in 1877 he lived in Hawthorn and then Kew while having offices in Collins Street. In 1893 he moved to Geelong where the best known examples of his work can be found. In a short obituary The Age tells us a little about the houses’ first owner:

W. B. Hoffman, who died a few days ago at Studley Park, Kew, was born in Byetown, Canada, and came here in 1850, starting a successful career on the gold fields. He then entered into the timber industry, erecting the first saw mills in the Bullarook- Forest and at Macedon, and afterwards interesting himself in the importation to Victoria of New Zealand kauri. He was the first to introduce here the manufacture of sulphuric acid, erecting works at South Melbourne for that purpose, and was one of the pioneer councillors of that city. His remains were interred in the Boroondara Cemetery Kew, the Rev. Archdeacon Hindley officiating at the grave. The deceased gentleman leaves a wife and grown up family.

The first tenant of No 39 was Mrs Blair with her young adopted son, Aboriginal boy, Lani [for more on Lani’s story see link below]. After Hoffman’s death in 1902 the houses were sold to George Adlington Syme (later Sir George). He was an eminent surgeon and brother of David and Ebenezer Syme, owners of The Age newspaper. He died in 1929 but the houses remained in his estate until 1953 when they were sold separately. No 41 was sold for £4050 but No 39 was initially passed in at £3750, with a reserve of £4100. From then on their stories, architecturally, took very different paths. No 41 remained unscathed by any trends towards modernisation while No 39 took the full brunt. It was bought by architectural firm, Robert Marsh, Bennie & Barry, and converted to their office. They removed every trace of the house’s origins [for link to photo see below]. The on-line rate books only take us until 1974 but the firm was still in occupation at that time. It cannot have been that many years later when the well-known interior decorator, Stuart Rattle, gave it another makeover, creating its current Georgian look, typical of his style.