Large 3-storey house built of polychrome brick
As is well known Jolimont was once the home of lieutenant-governor Charles Joseph Latrobe, purchased by him in 1839. When he returned to England in 1854 he left his friend, Dr James Palmer, in charge of subdividing and selling his land. Palmer kept for himself the central part of the property, which became known as Jolimont Square. On it he built five large, two-storey, timber, prefabricated houses, three down the eastern side of the square and two down the other.
In the 1860s the house nearest the corner of Wellington Parade South and Agnes Street, and known as 4 Jolimont Square, was occupied by the merchant, John Vernon and his wife, Ann. In 1864 John died but Ann remained living there.
In 1869 Ann notified the council of her intention to build a house in Jolimont Square. This is unusual as she was not the owner of the land. She must have come to some agreement with James Palmer. In many ways it was a good deal for him. When the house was built Ann would move into it and leave him with his original five houses and no loss of rental income, and he would retain the improved capital value of the land on which the new house was built. Meanwhile Ann would get her own large house with room to take in boarders to provide her with an income. The only mystery is: where did the money come from to build it? John did not leave a will which implies he had very little money to leave.
The exact birth of the house is hard to pin-point as there are two notices of intention to build about a month apart. The first: 26 August 1869 - G.G. Jenkin to build a house for Mrs Vernon. No address is given. The second: 25 September 1869 – Anton Schultz to build a house for Mrs Vernon in Jolimont Square. On the same day as the first notice went in an advertisement appeared in the Argus advertising for a ‘good freestone cutter’ for work at Jolimont Square. Then nothing. On 28 September, just a few days after the second notice, A Schultz advertised for masons and good wallers. Perhaps the first builder proved unsatisfactory in some way and a new builder was brought in.
The house was completed in 1870 and recorded in the rate books of that year as being a brick house of three floors, comprising 12 rooms plus bathroom, pantry and scullery. From the street a ramp leads the visitor above the ground floor to the main entrance at first floor level, giving the house its slightly detached air. It was known as Mornington-house and was given an address in Wellington Parade South, or Jolimont Parade as it was then, despite it still being part of Jolimont Square.
Mrs Vernon lived in the house, along with her boarders, until her death in 1875. Briefly one of her tenants was the Launceston Church Grammar School. In 1874 the Rev W Savigny placed an advertisement in the Argus: ‘A Resident ASSISTANT MASTER will be WANTED, after vacation. Qualification -French and English, both up to matriculation standard, elementary Latin, arithmetic, and Euclid’.
James Palmer died in 1871, and according to his probate papers the square, and Mornington-house, were sold for £5250. However, it seems that settlement was not completed until after Ann Vernon’s death in 1875. The new owner was Duncan McKellar, a wealthy grazier and owner of extensive pastoral holdings and city properties. He died in 1884.
In 1885 Mrs Tabitha Ball bought Mornington-house, along with the rest of the square, and moved in with her children. She was the widow of Charles Ball, a much older man who she had married in 1862. Her sister, Eliza, had married Charles Ball’s nephew, William Henry Welch, the same month.
Charles Ball and William Henry Welch are credited with founding the department store, Ball and Welch, which stood in Flinders Street until the mid-1970s. However, when Miss Effie Ball, one of Tabitha’s daughters, died, a report in The Herald of 23 January 1945 gave a rather different view. The report claimed that the two men were gold buyers and that:
Mrs Ball and Mrs Welch really started the drapery store. They used to import silks and fashionable furbelows from London and their women friends in the thriving township [of Vaughan], which once had a population of 25,000, used to say. "Oh, please get me some next time you send to England!" Thus the store began, and it prospered for many years.
It is hard to substantiate this. They were a family who were particularly adept at avoiding the public gaze. But certainly, Joseph, Charles’ older brother, Charles himself, and William had all been drapers or silk mercers back in England. When they arrived in Australia around 1853 Joseph was the one who became a gold buyer in Castlemaine. Meanwhile Charles and William seemed to have a quiet time living as gentlemen in Collingwood, at least according to the 1856 electoral roll.
The Reardon sisters, Tabitha and Eliza, had been born in Melbourne in the 1840s and also were living in Collingwood. Here were two women who were interested in fashion who happened to meet two men who had the experience to help them take it further. It seems plausible that a plan was hatched. Perhaps the men had already established an embryonic business, which the women thought they could improve by offering a female view of what might sell well. Or perhaps the business was established at the instigation of the women. The site chosen was the booming mining town of Vaughan where there was plenty of money but not much to spend it on. It had the added advantage of being near Castlemaine where Joseph had established himself.
In 1874 the firm established a second store in Carlton and the families moved back to the city. Charles Ball died at his home in Drummond Street, Carlton in 1876.
Yet It appears that the women continued to take an active part in the business and to make regular visits to the original store. The Herald report goes on to say:
When Vaughan went into a decline, Ball and Welch moved to Castlemaine on September 1, 1882. and here Mrs Ball and Mrs Welch, "tall and gracefully gowned like fashion plates," presided over the millinery and costume department. They wore Princess robes of soft grey merino with long trains; and trimmed with a row of knotted silk to form a coat line with two pockets at the back with fringe.
In 1902 Mrs Ball, then aged 60, advised the Melbourne City Council that she would make additions to a house in Jolimont Square. This was the house on the north eastern corner of the square, known as Redcourt. She moved in with those of her family still at home, including Effie, and Mornington-house was leased.
One of the earliest tenants in this new era was Nicolas de Passey, Imperial Consul-General for Russia in Australasia who advertised in 1902 that he had for purchase the ‘Guide to the Great Siberian Railway Line’ available at the consulate, Mornington, Jolimont Square, for the price of £1.
Tabitha died in 1919 and Jolimont Square was eventually sold to the Deaf and Dumb Society of Victoria. Mornington continued to be leased and in 1934 textile designer, Frances Burke, lived there as a student, until moving on to a more permanent address in East Melbourne.