East Melbourne, Clarendon Street 228, 230, Clarendon Flats

On 9 Aug 1912 The Herald ran a short article stating that,
‘Messrs. F. H. Patterson and company report having sold privately a block of land in Clarendon street, East Melbourne, which was to have been offered at auction to-morrow. The block comprises land 40 feet x 82 feet at the corner of Clarendon street and Victoria street, and was sold at the rate of £19/10/ a foot to Dr. Schalit, who has instructed Mr J. Plottel, architect, to erect residential flats on the site’

On 4 September 1912 the City of Melbourne received a notice of intent to build citing Elsie Paterson as the owner and W H Cooper as the builder.  Elsie’s surname was misspelt, she was the wife of real estate agent and auctioneer, Francis Harold Patterson.  It seems that the Pattersons acted as managing agents on behalf of Dr Schalit. Elsie’s name appeared in the rate books for many years as owner or ratepayer, before Dr Schalit’s name replaced it.

To back track a little - prior to Dr Schalit’s purchase of the vacant land there had been four terrace houses on the site, which at the time had the numbers 233, 235, 241 and 243 Victoria Parade.   On 25 Nov 1912 The Herald advertised, ‘East Melbourne — superior Accommodation, new house, 233 Victoria parade, minute gardens, Clarendon st. entrance.’ It sounds very much like the new building was already completed.  The Notice of Intent to Build also referred to a ‘house’, as did the rate books for the first few years. It is hard to believe the building could have been completed in such a short time. Construction must have started before the Notice was submitted.

Joseph Plottel (1883-1977) arrived in Melbourne in 1907 and after a short period working as a draftsman with Nahum Barnet he set up his own practice in 1911. He worked in a range of styles and in his early years designed a number of flat buildings.  Clarendon may well be the earliest of these. One of his best-known works is the St Kilda Synagogue.  The Jewish community provided many of his commissions and amongst them was Dr Scahlit’s commission to build Clarendon.

Moise Aaron Schalit (1875-1959) was born in the Ukraine but migrated to Palestine with his family when he was seven as part of the Zionist movement to create a Jewish state. When he became afflicted with trachoma his doctor thought a cooler climate would be better for him and he moved to Switzerland.  There he studied medicine, specializing in ophthalmology and gaining an MD from the University of Geneva in 1900.

Afterwards he returned to Palestine and worked as a physician in Nablus, which lies between Jerusalem and Nazareth.  His patients were both Jewish and Arab and he became personal physician to a rich Arab soap-manufacturer, who, after a long bout of illness, refused to pay him.  Schalit sued.  He won but made enemies in the process which caused him to leave Nablus and ultimately move to Australia.

In Melbourne he practised as a physician and was most popular and respected by his patients and the Jewish community in general. In 1908 Dr Schalit married Harriet May Goldberg, the daughter of Abraham Goldberg of Orient, 340 Albert Street, East Melbourne. 

By the 1930s he was being referred to as a ‘noted Melbourne authority on Psychiatry’. Believing that mental illness was due more to environment than heredity and that prevention was better than cure he was keen to establish child guidance clinics throughout Australia for the care and treatment of the younger generation right from infancy.

Harriet died in 1934 and in 1937 Schalit married leading feminist, Ruby Sophia Rich. In 1954 he published his memoirs, ‘Travelled Roads: Memoirs of a Doctor who Lived in the Land of Israel’.

About 1923 Dr Schalit sold the building and it passed to Catherine Barberie as the new owner.  By the 1930s the management of the building was in the hands of Muriel Smith, who also had Nos 226 and 224 Clarendon Street under her care at this time. Muriel Smith’s early life had not been smooth sailing.  She had married in Tasmania in 1917 but left her husband, Albert Tasman Rudd, four years and two children later because of his drinking.  She moved to Melbourne with her children and by 1931 she was running a delicatessen in Victoria Parade, Collingwood. 

In 1933 William Stanley Rudd, whose real name was William Smith, was charged with selling sly grog from the same address.  For this he was fined £40.  At the same time he was charged with being in possession of an unregistered and loaded pistol.  This attracted a fine of £5.  The judge described him ‘as a sort of highwayman in a small way on his own premises.’ 

In 1935 Muriel finally divorced her first husband and married William Stanley Smith.  They moved into 222 Clarendon Street. By then he was working as a driver, and she was occupied according to electoral rolls with home duties but her duties obviously extended to the management of the three buildings next door. They moved into Victoria House, 220 Clarendon Street around 1945, but by 1950 William had moved out.  Soon after Muriel Smith was able to buy the building. For more on Muriel’s life see the link below.