East Melbourne, Albert Street 109, Burnell

The house at 109 Albert Street appears to have been completed c.1877 when it first appears in the Rate Books (Albert Ward) as a brick house of 12 rooms. However there had been a lengthy gestation. The land on which it stood (Lot 16, Section 11) was bought at the first Crown Land Sales on 18 November 1852 for £200 by Luke Chambers, a builder. On 24 April 1854 a Notice of Intent to Build was lodged with the City Council for a wooden house in Albert Street. The owner was William Clarke and Chambers was the builder. The Rate Books (Latrobe Ward) describe it as having 13 rooms and the occupier was J. Ackerman. This was a large number of rooms for a wooden house and it is possible that William Clarke intended to live there, but decided to upgrade.

In June 1854 he lodged another Notice of Intent to Build a brick house also in Albert Street, almost opposite the wooden house. It also had 13 rooms. The 1856 Rate Books describe the wooden house as having 'number small rooms'. The following year it has only 10 rooms, in 1860 it has 8, in 1863 7 rooms, and in 1870 7 rooms plus shed. Presumably internal walls have been knocked down.

The c.1866 Isometrical Map of Melbourne and Suburbs by de Gruchy & Leigh shows the house to be then a two storey building, with a double bay arched verandah and balcony, and a gabled roof. There is possibly a single storey section on the western side with a skillion roof.

In 1863 John Speechley Gotch became the owner. In 1871 the house was described as wood and brick of 10 rooms, in 1875 it was 10 rooms plus coach house and stables. In 1877 it was fully brick and 12 rooms, achieving its final form.

Artist William Tibbits made a watercolour painting of it in 1879 disproving the belief that the house was altered in the early 1900s. Among the 12 rooms was a music room equipped with an organ. Mrs. Gotch played Mendelssohn's Wedding March on the organ on the occasion of her daughter's wedding in 1896. Gotch died in 1901, Mrs. Gotch remained there until her death in 1914, when it passed to her son, Edward.

In 1920 Daniel Egan is given as the owner and occupier and the house is advertised for the first time in The Argus as Burnell, S.C. flats. In the same year the garden block to the east of the house was sold separately and later developed as flats. The house until then appeared not to have a name and was known only by its old street number, No. 236 Albert Street.

It was bought by the Freemasons Hospital c.1951 and remained as flats until its eventual demolition. The site now provides vehicle access and car park for the hospital.