East Melbourne, Gipps Street 154, Stokesay

The house was built for John Webster in 1869 and designed by architects Reed & Barnes, who designed a number of houses in East Melbourne. Nancy Adams, in her book, Family Fresco,claims the house was once owned by her father, Sir Edward Mitchell, K.C., who named it Stokesay after Stokesay Vicarage in Shropshire where he used to spend university vacations and where the vicar coached him. However in January 1885 the contents of Stokesay was put up for sale by the executors of the late Sir William Mitchell, Sir Edwards's father and Victoria's first Chief Commissioner of Police and later President of the Legislative Council. The house was not mentioned in his probate papers and it seems he rented it. From c.1887-1912 the house was owned by the Rowlands/Jones family. Evan Rowlands was an aerated water manufacturer with business in Melbourne, Ballarat and Sydney. On his death in 1894 he left a life interest in the house to his niece, Elizabeth Jones. Nancy Adams, who lived next door at Fanecourt [qv] has this to say, "Now it was owned by Mr David Jones, a widower with two attractive daughters whose sister - surely the kindest woman who ever lived - kept house for her brother and brought up her nieces." She however returned to England in 1912. The house was sold by the family in 1918 and was subsequently converted to flats. It was later accquired by the Sisters of Mercy who re-named it St. Anne's. It served as nurses quarters for many years before being demolished along with Fanecourt to make way for a carpark for the adjacent Mercy Hospital. It is now the eastern half of Mercy Place Aged Care.