St Patrick's Society and the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation - neighbours in Bourke Street

In a recent post I looked at the second Synagogue built in Melbourne by the Mikveh Yisrael Congregation which was established  by Rabbi Moses Rintel in 1857. The Synagogue was officially dedicated in March 1863. This building was designed by the architectural firm of Knight and Kerr, who a few years earlier had designed Victoria's Parliament House, where the first sitting was held on November 25, 1856.

Before Parliament House was opened, the Victorian Parliament sat at St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street, just west of Queen Street, and which was located next to Melbourne's first Synagogue.  The first parliamentary session held in St Patrick's Hall was on November 13, 1851. The hall, designed by Samuel Jackson, was the only building at the time in Melbourne large enough to accommodate Parliament. Jackson had arrived in Melbourne in 1835 on John Pascoe Fawkner's Enterprise. He then returned to Launceston but arrived back in Melbourne four years later.  Jackson designed some of Melbourne's notable early buildings including St Francis' Church and the first Scots Church in 1841 and the Melbourne Hospital in 1846 (1).   St Patrick's Hall opened on June 5, 1849 with a ball attended by nearly 400 people, where the dancing was kept up with great animation until nearly daylight (2).

In 1872, the Hall was was enlarged and renovated with  a new handsome front, entering to the hall, lowering the bottom floor to the level of the street, and doing away with the present unsightly steps. It is anticipated that by this means the appearance of the building will be improved, and greater accommodation secured (3). The works were designed by J. M. Barry (4).

St Patrick's Hall (right) and the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in 1852. 

The Hall hosted the Victorian Parliament from its first sitting on November 13, 1851 until 1856. The names of all the representatives present at the first sitting are listed in the scroll work. 

St. Patrick's Hall, the first Legislative House of Victoria, c. 1852. Artist and engraver: David Tulloch. 

State Library of Victoria Image H86.4/1

The hall was built by the St Patrick's Society (5).  The Society was established on June 28 1842 for the encouragement of national feeling, the relief of the destitute, the promotion of education, and, generally, whatever may be considered by its members best calculated to promote the happiness, the honor, and prosperity of their native and adopted land (6).   Other groups who used the Hall included the Hibernian Society, the Ladies Hibernian Society and the Young Ireland Society.

The St Patrick's Day March started at the Hall every year and over the years it was also the venue for balls, concerts, meetings and lectures, both educational and political. A branch of the Irish Republican Association, which advocated for Irish independence from the British, was formed at a meeting at the Hall in January 1921 (7). From the late 1920s to the 1940s it was also the venue for Tone Pearse Republican Cumann activities. This was a group that promoted Irish interests and culture. Cumann is Irish for a political party branch - the motto of organization was 'The aims of Tone, the means of Pearse' (8).  Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) was an Irish nationalist who fought to overthrow British rule in Ireland (9) and Patrick Pearse was the President of the 1916 provisional Irish Government and commanded the Irish forces in the 1916 Easter Uprising. After the uprising failed he was shot by the English by firing-squad (10). 

In 1947, the hall became the home of the Ballet Guild, the forerunner of the Victorian Ballet Company (11). St Patrick's Hall was put up for sale in 1951 and sold for £42,500 to an undisclosed buyer (12).  It was resold in February 1957 to the London Assurance Company who planned to erect a modern office building on the site (13) which opened November 20, 1958 (14).  It is sad that a building that played such a significant role in the early history of Victoria and the political and cultural life of Irish Victorians was demolished, but some of it remains in St James the Great Anglican Church in Inkerman Street, St Kilda East. The Age reported on the laying of the foundation stone of this Church in February 1959 that two of the pillars to be incorporated into the building came from St Patrick's Hall (15). I wonder if any other parts of the Hall still exists?

St Patrick's Hall, with the extension or handsome new front (right) and the Synagogue. 

St. Patrick's Hall and Jewish Synagogue, c. 1876-1894.  Photographer: John William Lindt. 

State Library of Victoria Image H42502/11

The building to the west of St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street was the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. The Foundation stone was laid on August 25, 1847 by the President of the Congregation, Solomon Benjamin (16).  It was reported that nearly all of the Jewish persuasion resident in Melbourne attended the ceremony (17). According  to the  March 1846 Census, the total European population of the Port Phillip District was 32,184 of which 117 described themselves as Jewish (18). The Synagogue, designed by Charles Laing, was officially consecrated on March 17, 1848 (19).  Charles Laing also designed St Peters, Eastern Hill Anglican Church and the Melbourne Benevolent Society in North Melbourne (20). 

This building, which was built at the rear of the block, as you can see in the image at the top of this post, was always intended as a temporary building (21) and on December 1, 1853, the foundation stone was laid for a new building in front of the original one (22). This stone was laid by David Benjamin, Solomon's brother (23) and it was opened the Sunday before Passover in 1855 (24). The new building was designed by  Charles Webb whose other work includes the Alfred Hospital, the Royal Arcade and the South Melbourne Town Hall (25). Three years later in 1858 five months of work was undertaken to transform what was one of the plainest and uninviting interiors in the City into one of the most tasteful and elegant. The work required the building to be re-consecrated and this happened in the September (26). 

The Synagogue, 1860s.

State Library of Victoria image H2004.55/12

I wondered if there was much formal interaction between the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and the St Patrick's Society. Lazarus Goldman (27) writes of a few examples. Asher Hymen Hart (28) President of the Congregation from 1844, who was popular amongst all classes of citizens, was especially welcome amongst the Irish, often contributing towards their funds. Mr Hart attended St Patrick's Day Dinners and was said to admire the St Patrick's Society advancement of education (29).  In 1877, the Jewish school which occupied the original Synagogue,  had to relocate for a month as there was an outbreak of scarletina in the family of one of the officials who lived on the grounds, so the children attended school in the St Patrick's Hall (30). School concerts were also held in the Hall (31).  Different cultural practices also caused some issues as Goldman  writes that the noise from the dancing in the St Patrick's Hall next door interfered with the services held in the Synagogue on Kol Nidre nights, and only by individual efforts of some committeemen did the organisers of the dances refrain from holding functions on the eve of the Day of Atonement (32). 

The Synagogue and St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street.

Synagogue Bourke Street, dated 1914-1941. State Library of Victoria Image H22992

Eighty years of coexisting as neighbours came to an end in 1930, when the Congregation built a new Synagogue in South Yarra. The last service held in Bourke Street was on January 19, 1930 (33).  The building had been sold in November 1927 for £52,500 (34) to the Equity Trustees Company who demolished it in April 1930 to erect their new building on the site (35). 

The Synagogue being demolished - all that remains of the building in this photo are the six pillars.

The Argus, April 4, 1930 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4079390

The Equity Trustees building, designed by the Architects, Oakley and Parkes, opened in 1931. Their address is 472 Bourke Street, on the corner of what was Synagogue Lane, the only reminder of the former Synagogue. It hasn't been called Synagogue Lane for some years, looking at old newspapers the name was used in the 1880s, then became Bourke Lane, then renamed Little Queen Street around the 1910s.

The only reminder of the Synagogue in Bourke Street.

Image: Isaac Hermann (taken March 2022)

Footnotes

(1) Samuel Jackson (1807 - 1876). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(2) Geelong Advertiser, June 9, 1849, see here.

(3) The Advocate, April 12, 1951, see here, led me to the original article I quoted from in The Advocate of January 6, 1872, see here. There is also a detailed account of the extensions and renovations in The Advocate, June 1, 1872, see here and The Advocate of November 23, 1872, see here.

(4) John Michael Barry (c. 1826 - 1911). Born in Dublin, worked in Melbourne for 19 years until he returned to Dublin, where he spent the rest of his life. Amongst other work, Barry also designed the Western Market which opened 1868.  Dictionary of Irish Architects, 1720-1940, see here.

(5) The Advocate, April 5, 1951, see here.  The article looks back at the history of the St Patrick's Society and the early days of the Hall.

(6) Port Phillip Gazette, July 2, 1842, see here.

(7) The Advocate, January 25, 1923, see here. The article has a full report of the resolutions which were passed. 

(8) The Advocate, January 20, 1927, see here. The organisation was formed in January 1927, see The Advocate, January 20, 1927, here.

(9) Wolfe Tone - born Theobald Wolfe Tone. Britannica on-line, see here.

(10) Patrick Henry Pearse, (1879 - 1916). Britannica on-line, see here.

(11) The Argus, June 28, 1947, see here.

(12) The Argus, April 19, 1951, see here and The Age, April 19, 1951, see here.

(13) The Age,  Feb 22, 1957, accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry.

(14) The Age, October 28, 1958, accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry.

(15) The Age, February 7, 1959, p. 8,  accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry. I have written about St James the Great Anglican Church, here.

The Age, February 7, 1959, p. 8

(16) Goldman,  Lazarus Morris The Jews in Victoria in the  Nineteenth Century (published by the Author, 1954), p. 54. The ceremony was reported in the Port Phillip Gazette of August 28, 1847, see here. Solomon Benjamin had arrived in the Colony in 1838. He died at the age of 70 in 1888, you can read about his life in his informative obituary in the Jewish Herald, of April 13, 1888, see here.

(17) Port Phillip Gazette of August 28, 1847, see here. 

(18) Goldman, op. cit., p. 53.

(19) Goldman, op. cit., p. 57. 

(20) Charles Laing (1809-1857). See his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(21) Freeland, J.M. Melbourne Churches, 1836-1851: an Architectural record (Melbourne University Press, 1963), p. 143. This is a great book if you have an interest in Colonial Melbourne and historic Churches. 

(22) Freeland, op. cit., p. 144.

(23) Freeland, op. cit., p. 144. There is a short obituary for David Benjamin in the Jewish Herald of July 14, 1893, see here. He is also mentioned in Solomon's obituary, see link in Footnote 16.

(24) Freeland, op. cit., p. 144.

(25) Charles Webb (1821-1898), see his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(26) The Age, September 3, 1858, see here.

(27) Goldman, op. cit

(28) Asher Hymen Hart (1811-1871). We started this post off with Rabbi Moses Rintel. The Rabbi's wife was Elvina Hart. Elvina's sister Isabella married Asher's brother, Edward, in 1844 (Goldman p. 47). Asher died in London on January 15, 1871. 

(29) Goldman, op. cit., pp 49-50.

(30) Goldman, op. cit, p. 247. The official was Marcus Josephson and his role was the Shamos, which Mr Goldman describes as a 'Beadle'. He has a useful glossary in his book on pages 413-417.

(31) Goldman, op. cit, p. 261.

(32) Goldman, op. cit, p. 247. 

(33) The Hebrew Standard of Australasia, January 24, 1930, see here.

(34) The Age, November 1, 1927, see here.

(35) The Argus, April 4, 1930, see here.

(36) The Herald, March 23, 1931, see here.

Rabbi Rintel's Synagogue becomes the City Creche

In January 1849, Moses Rintel, was appointed as the Reader of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation. Moses, born in Edinburgh, Scotland had arrived in Sydney in 1844 where he served the Sydney Congregation as the Principal of the Hebrew School. Even though, Rintel was not a professional clergyman before his arriving in Melbourne, he nevertheless, because of his upbringing and background, was well able to carry out the duties of a minister and few public men were to become better known in the city during his time as the 'Rabbi Rintel' as he was called (1).  Rabbi Rintel, was described as a man with a colourful personality and picturesque character, [who] possessed a strong mind and a will of his own and combined it with a soft heart and natural ability (2). After some disputes Rabbi Rintel fell out with the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, whose Synagogue was in Bourke Street (3) and resigned as their Minister on April 1, 1857 (4). Very soon after he formed a new congregation with Henri John Hart, the brother of his wife, Elvina. This new congregation was called the Mikveh Yisrael Melbourne Synagogue, which was also known as the East Melbourne Congregation (5).  

The Congregation met in a series of temporary premises, firstly to Spring Street, with successive relocations to Latrobe and Lonsdale Streets (6) until they were able to build their own Synagogue. Rabbi Rintel, on behalf of the Congregation, had applied for a Crown grant for a Hebrew School and this was granted May 17, 1859. The land was on the corner of Exhibition (then called Stephen Street ) and Little Lonsdale Streets, with  trustees Rabbi Moses Rintel, Henri John Hart (7), Moritz Michaelis (8), Morris Nelson (9) and Abraham Woolf (10).

Notification in the Government Gazette about the land grant.

Victoria Government Gazette, May 20 1859

Even though the land was specifically granted for a school, the construction of an actual synagogue  soon commenced, with the foundation stone laid on December 29, 1859 (11).  The building was dedicated on March 29, 1863 and you can read a comprehensive account of this event, here (12). It was designed by Architects Knight and Kerr, who had designed a rather more grand building a few years earlier, Victoria's Parliament House which opened in 1856 (13). The Mikveh Yisrael Congregation spent less than twenty years in Exhibition Street and moved to a new Synagogue in Albert Street, the official opening of which took place on September 5, 1877 (14).  The Exhibition Street building had already been sold for £2870 to the Education Department for a ragged school as The Herald called it (15).  A ragged school was a free school to educate poor children, who generally had ragged clothes.

Rabbi Rintel's Synagogue in 1933 when it was the City Creche. 

The signs on the buildings next door as for Union White Flash, a petroleum product, and Witch Soap, a J. Kitchen & Sons product.

City Creche [Cnr Exhibition & Little Lonsdale Streets, Melbourne], 1933. Photographer: John Kinmont Moir. 

State Library of Victoria Image H4900.

On March 1 1878, this ragged school - State School No. 2030 - opened in the old Synagogue after the Department had spent £960 on additions and alterations (16).  The school was in a slum area and this led to its closure just over ten years later. The District Inspector reported that it was as well to close this school. It is too distinctively a slum school to be of much moral good to the scholars and the Inspector General's report described many of the students as from the slums and poorly clad. The school was closed on December 20, 1889 (17). 

It doesn't sound like it was a school where there was much joy or hope, however a past pupil wrote a letter to The Age in January 1938, under the pen-name 'Old Scholar' and shared his happy memories of his time there - 

Sir, -  I was a scholar of State school 2030, Exhibition-street (formerly old synagogue, now S. A. home). It was ably conducted by Mr. J. Cullin (the head master), and master Best (about

1883). Mr. Allen was singing master. The scholars were Selman, C. Herring, Nancy Watson, brother who hurt his leg at a circus; Miss Harris and Needham, Sister McHarg, Edwards (son of the grocer near the school), the Rosiers, Tuskins, Kennedy. As far as I can recollect, Miss Freeman was teacher of the Infant class. We had a few scholars who went to Hebrew; while Dr. Strong and his ladies conducted the scripture lessons. We sang some fine hymns in those times. We had a fine trip to Bendigo about the year 1887, and to the juvenile exhibition. I never thought I would live here for 40 years. We got on very well, but Mr. Cullin was very strict, and could use the cane expertly, which I do not forget. When I left I attended Mr. Brandon's school at night in Fitzroy. -

Yours, &c., Bendigo. OLD SCHOLAR. (18)

Interesting letter, especially the part about the singing of the fine hymns, given that the 1872 Education Act, which came into effect on January 1, 1873,  stipulated that schooling in Victoria should be free, secular and compulsory for students of not less than six years nor more than fifteen years, but perhaps as the Act actually specified 'secular instruction' the hymn singing was considered to be entertainment. (19). 

After the school closed it was used by the Salvation Army as Free Labour Bureau and then a refuge for the unemployed (20).  In June 1897, the Salvation Army was given a seven year lease on the building for £1 per annum for use a refuge for destitute women. This was reported in The Age - 

An old building in Exhibition-street, formerly used as a State school, was yesterday handed over by the Minister of Education to the Salvation Army, for the purpose of being made into a night shelter for destitute women. The building had been asked for by Mrs. Booth on behalf, as she expressed it, of "the gaol birds, who live between the prison cell and the beer shop; the poor old vagrant wanderers, the slaves of want and whisky, the dirty and degraded, the women who have ranked themselves amongst the company of the great unwanted and unwashed; the out of work women, who have nothing to hope for." A home of this kind was opened some time ago in Canada by Mrs. Booth, and proved of great service to the class for which it was designed. In granting the use of the building the Minister stipulated that it should be renovated and kept in good repair, and this condition was readily assented to (21). 

The Salvation Army refuge was closed in July 1905 and the building was later leased to the Melbourne Central Mission, part of the Methodist Church.  The Mission had been established in 1893 as a practical response to alleviate the impacts of the 1890s depression (22).  A report from the Central Mission in the Methodist newspaper, the Spectator and Methodist Chronicle, in May 1918 looked back at this time -

In June 1908, the  use of an old State school building, in Exhibition-street, near Wesley Church was granted to us. It was then known as 'Hope-Hall,' but since as the 'Central Mission Guild House.' With some assistance from the Education Department, we renovated the whole place, and it has been used for Mission services, for the home of the City Free Kindergarten, and for the meeting-place of our Junior and Senior Girls' Guilds (23).

The Free Kindergarten was opened by Lady Carmichael on August 15, 1910 (24). It was the first free kindergarten in the City, although there were others established in some suburbs. The role of the kindergarten was seen as a way to help 'slum' children rise out of poverty. A report of the opening confirms this -

Mr Edgar, M.L.C., said that the institution of free kindergartens within the city boundaries would in time probably solve the problem of the Melbourne slums. Dr Maloney, M. H. R., in seconding the motion, hoped that kindergartens would soon be established in every quarter of the city. A destitute woman should be able to go to the Government and say, "My child lacks clothes and food, and it is your duty to save this future unit of Australia." (25)

In May 1915 it was announced that the City Free Kindergarten Committee are opening a creche in connection with their kindergarten in the hall, corner of Exhibition and Little Lonsdale streets. All working mothers and guardians' are requested to communicate with Mrs. W. Ramsay, hon. sec., 80 Swanston street, or with the directress at the Kindergarten Hall (26). 

The building in 1949.

City Free Kindergarten, 1949. Photographer: Colin Caldwell.

State Library of Victoria Image H84.276/1/50D

The City Creche as it was known served Melbourne until March 1948 (27),  when it closed as it the building was deemed inadequate for its purpose. In fact it was described as a disgrace by the Secretary of the Association of Creches. Mrs L.T. Gedye (28). The building was still owned at the time by the Education Department. Melbourne City Council took over the building and after extensive renovations it reopened  in June 1950 (29).  In 1954, the City Creche was named the Ethel Nilsen Day Nursery in honour of Mrs Nilsen who for 17 years had been a non-stop and generous worker for the creche (30). 

The building operated as a creche until at least 1989 when according to a report in The Age the tenants have been removed from the Ethel Nilsen Kindergarten, Exhibition Street with the Government non-committal as to what heritage protection it will impose, if any, once the building is sold (31). This was not the first threat to the building's existence as in May 1947 it was reported in The Age that the Chief architect of the Public Works Department (Mr. P. Everett) said a new building was intended for the site. At present, a multi-storied building was planned, with accommodation for a kindergarten and creche on the ground floor and an adult education centre on the floors above (32). 

The building has survived and is currently used as a restaurant. Perhaps the prayers and good thoughts of  Rabbi Rintel and his congregation and the folk of the Salvation Army and the Methodist Melbourne Mission, with the addition of the fine hymns sung by the scholars of the State School, No.  2030, are the reason that this small historic building still stands, despite the onslaught of progress that has wrought the destruction of so much of our city's built heritage.

Footnotes:

(1)  Goldman,  Lazarus Morris The Jews in Victoria in the  Nineteenth Century (published by the Author, 1954). p. 62. You can read Rintel's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here. I have written about his son, Henri, here, and Footnote 2 - has some information about the Rabbi's family.

(2) Goldman, op. cit., p. 267.

(3) Bourke Street Synagogue  - the foundation stone was laid in 1847. It was demolished in 1930 as the Congregation had moved to a new Synagogue in South Yarra. 

(4) Goldman, op. cit., p. 133. Goldman writes about the various disputes between Rintel and the Melbourne Congregation in chapters 11 - Immigrants and 12 - A new Congregation.

(5) Goldman, op. cit. p. 133 and 135.

(6) Goldman, op. cit. p. 135.

(7) Henri John Hart (1820 - 1884) You can read about Henri's life in his informative obituary in the Jewish Herald, May 2, 1884, here.

(8) Moritz Michaelis  (1820 - 1902) -  the founder of the Michaelis, Hallenstein Tannery at Footscray, read about that here. Read his obituary in the Jewish Herald of December 2, 1902, here. Goldman describes him as the Acting Prussian Consul (p. 136). 

(9) Morris Nelson - laid the foundation stone of the Exhibition Street Synagogue (Goldman, p. 137). I believe he was a merchant, part of the firm of Nelson Brothers of Orange, who died July 5, 1877 at the age of 58 at his home in Sydney (death notice in the Sydney Mail, July 14, 1877, see here.) 

(10) Abraham Woolf - I cannot confirm any other information about Mr Woolf.

(11) There is a  short report in The Argus, December 29, 1859, here [middle of third column] and Goldman, p. 137.  The newspaper report says Rabbi Rintel laid the stone, Goldman says Morris Nelson laid it.

(12) The Herald, March 30, 1863, see here.

(13)  You can read about the process of designing Parliament House on their website, here. John George Knight (1826 - 1892), read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here. Peter Kerr  (1820 - 1912), read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.  I became aware of the architects of the Synagogue through the Victorian Heritage Database citation, here.

(14) The Age, September 6, 1877, see here. The Albert Street Synagogue, still serves the community, https://www.melbournecitysynagogue.com/

(15) The Herald, September 4, 1877, see here.  Read more about ragged schools here on Culture Victoria.

(16) Blake, L. J (editor) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria,  (Education Department of Victoria, 1973), vol. 3. p. 79.

(17) Blake, op. cit., vol. 3. p. 79.

(18) The Age, January 29, 1938, see here.

(19) Read the Education Act here (it is only 6 pages long)   http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/tea1872134/

(20) Blake, op. cit., vol. 3. p. 79.

(21) The Age, June 10, 1897, see here. The Mrs Booth referred to is, I believe, the wife of Bramwell Booth, the General of the Salvation Army from 1912 to 1929 and the son of the founders William and Catherine Booth. Catherine had died in 1890. Read more about the Booths here, on the Salvation Army website.

(22) Later called Wesley Central Mission and now called Wesley Mission.

(23) Spectator and Methodist Chronicle, May 15, 1918, see here.

(24) The Argus, August 16, 1910, see here. Lady Carmichael (nee Mary Nugent), was the wife of Sir Thomas Carmichael,  the Governor of Victoria from 1908 to 1911. 

(25)  The Argus, August 16, 1910, see here.  Mr Edgar, M. L. C., - William Haslam Edgar (1858-1948), see here. Dr Maloney is William Robert Maloney - Doctor, Politician and Humanitarian, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry here.

(26) The Argus, May 5, 1915, see here.

(27) The Age, June 30, 1950, see here.

(28) The Age, May 20, 1947, see here. Mrs L. T. Gedye was Mrs Leonard Talford Gedye (nee Ethel Rose Heydt). She spent years raising funds for and awareness of the need for creches, I will write about her one day, she's worth more than a footnote.

(29) The Age, June 30, 1950, see here.

(30) The Argus,  August 24, 1954, see here. Ethel (nee Williams) was the wife of Oliver John Nilsen, who started the radio station 3UZ. You can read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(31) The Age, July 19, 1989 - accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry.

(32)  The Age, May 20, 1947, see here.