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.

A view of Maribyrnong Street Footscray, c.1875

Maribyrnong River and Maribyrnong Street, Footscray, c.1875.

Maribyrnong River at Footscray, c. 1875. Photographer: American & Australasian Photographic Company. 

State Library of New South Wales Image 63642. Click here for the original image.

I came across this photograph on the State Library of New South Wales website of the Maribyrnong River (also known as the Saltwater River) at Footscray. It's a great photo, taken c. 1875, and shows some of the buildings in Maribyrnong Street - the Bridge Hotel, on the right, then Pickett's house; the substantial bluestone building on the hill, is the premises of Samuel Henderson, Ham and Bacon Curers and further along is the double storey Ship Inn. Maribyrnong Street runs along the river between Hopkins and Youell Streets. We will have a look at these four buildings in a little more detail.

Close up of the four buildings, cropped from the photo above.

Photographer: American & Australasian Photographic Company.  State Library of New South Wales Image 63642

The Bridge Hotel, on the corner of Wingfield and Maribyrnong Streets was built in 1854/55 by James Maher (1).   It was originally known as the Punt Hotel, due  to its proximity to the punt which crossed the river to Bunbury Street. James Maher was declared insolvent in November 1856, but still held the licence in 1859 (2).  This Punt Hotel is not to be confused with an earlier hotel called the Punt Inn built in 1838 and destroyed by fire in January 1848 and called the Bush Inn between 1843 and 1847 (3).  At the time of the fire it was owned by Charles Kellett. Kellett then sold his punt to Michael Lynch and his hotel licence to William Pickett (4) the husband of Michael's half-sister, Mary Dowd, more of whom later. Just to confuse matters even more Michael Lynch later established a Punt Hotel on Ballarat Road, near Lynch's bridge. This later became the Pioneer Hotel (5).

 The opening of the bridge at Hopkins Street, viewed from the Punt Hotel, and the reason the name changed to the Bridge Hotel.

Opening of the draw-bridge, Salt Water River, from the Australian News for Home Readers March 23, 1863. 

State Library of Victoria Image IAN25/03/63/9

The  Hotel changed its name from the Punt Hotel to the Bridge Hotel around 1863 (6),  when the new bridge over the Maribyrnong was opened in March 1863. This bridge connected Dynon Road to Hopkins Street, and was opened by the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly. The bridge was a boost to the locals as the Footscray people have hitherto suffered great inconvenience from the want of a proper crossing place, which necessitated a long circuit to reach Melbourne. The bridge was  built with a moveable roadway which, by means of machinery, can be removed at any time when a vessel requires to pass (7). The bridge was replaced in 1903, and this is when I believe it was named the Hopetoun bridge after Lord Hopetoun, who had been Governor of Victoria from 1889 until 1895. Lord Hopetoun had visited Footscray on April 23, 1891 on the day it was proclaimed a city (8). The bridge was replaced in 1969 by the existing bridge (9).

Advertisement for a leaseholder for the Bridge Hotel. Perhaps the idea was for the landlord to supplement his income from fish sales.

The Argus April 17, 1866. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5787155

The Bridge Hotel had other licensees and this advertisement in 1866 (see above) said that the house should have a Waltonian landlord. That's rather interesting, a Waltonian being an angler or a follower of Izaak Walton (1593-1683) who wrote The Compleat Angler. In 1907, the Licences Reduction Board was established whose role was to reduce the number of hotel licences in Victoria to the statutory number which was based on the population of an area (10). The hotels which lost their licence would be given compensation based on the profit of the past three years (11). The Bridge Hotel and the Ship Inn along with eight other local Footscray hotels were the subject of a licence deprivation hearing at Licence Court in May 1918 (12). As we shall see later, the Ship Inn was ordered to close. The Bridge Hotel's licence was reviewed again in May 1926 (13) and it was delicenced by January 1927 (14). The building was  demolished in 1966 (15).

Licence Court hearing into hotels in Footscray and Yarraville, including the Bridge Hotel.

The Age April 9, 1918  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155089602

Interesting comparison to the c. 1875 photo at the top of the post, which shows the industralisation of the waterfront. Looking under the 1903 Hopetoun bridge, you can just see the Bridge Hotel, to the left of the Port Phillip Mills factory. They were a wool treatment business. In front of the hotel are Raisbeck & Campbell, Boat Builders (16). 

  Hopkins Street Bridge and Maribyrnong River, Footscray, dated 1920s-1954. 

Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. State Library of Victoria Image H32492/933

Bridge Hotel, c. 1953  This photograph was published in Early Melbourne Architecture 1840-1888: a photographic record (17). The caption in the book says Bracketed eaves and wide-banded arches, painted in red ochre against yellow walls, gave a foreign air to this old house on the west bank of the Maribyrnong River.

Facing Maribyrnong River, c. 1953. State Library of Victoria Image  H2010.73/29

The Bridge Hotel, 1963, three years before demolition.

Footscray, corner Wingfield and Maribyrnong Streets, February 16, 1963. 

Photographer: John T. Collins State Library of Victoria Image H96.210/214

In our original photo, along from the Bridge Hotel is Pickett's house. In 1840, 21 year old Margaret Dowd arrived in Victoria and the next year she married William Pickett. In March 1848, William took over the licences of the 'Salt Water Punt Inn' and also operated the punt. The road to Melbourne by way of  Pickett's Punt, was well named "The Summer Road' for the journey was impossible in winter. (18). No wonder the community was happy when the bridge was opened in 1863. In 1853, Michael Lynch evicted them from the hotel and punt business, and gave it to his sister Ann to operate, but they had done well enough out of the business to purchase the land where they built their house in 1854 -  Pickett's house, as shown in the photo. Sadly for the family, William died in April 1858 at  only 35 years of age. Margaret was left with seven children from 16 years old to a baby born after William's death and had also given birth to three other children who had died young. Margaret lived in the house all her life and died in 1875, aged 55 (19).  The house is demolished, I cannot tell you when, but it is not in the November 1926 photo below. The life of Margaret Dowd Pickett and her children is recorded in the book Pubs, Punts and Pastures: the story of Pioneer Irish Women of the Salt Water River (20).

This is the temporary railway bridge over the Maribyrnong and was replaced in 1928. It runs into the Bunbury Street rail tunnel and is same location as William and Margaret Pickett's punt. The Bridge Hotel is visible, perfectly framed by the second span of the bridge on the right. The Michaelis Hallenstein tannery is the edifice behind the hotel. The Pickett house is gone, but the Ship Inn can still be seen, centre of photo, behind the railway line supports.

South Kensington to West Footscray, temporary bridge over Maribyrnong River, looking upstream, November 8, 1926. Victorian Railways Photographer. State Library of Victoria Image H28682/11

The next building  is the blue stone premises of Samuel Henderson, Ham and Bacon Curers, built around 1873. It included a house as well as the piggery. The slaughterhouse was 90 feet by 45 feet, and after they were killed and cleaned over 200 pigs could be hung on hook on a railing in one room and pushed along railings to the next stage. There is a detailed description of the process in the Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers of July 15, 1873, see here. The building had a number of later uses, and community action saved it from demolition (21).  You can read the Victorian Heritage Database citation, here. The building is now the Footscray Community Arts Centre.

A pretty picture of Henderson's Piggery.  The Bridge Hotel is in the background. What is missing is the smell and of course, the 1863 bridge.

Premises of Samuel Henderson, Ham and Bacon Curers, Saltwater River, Footscray, c. 1873. 

 Artist: S.T. Gill. State Library of Victoria Image H25128

Which brings us now to the Ship Inn, on the corner of Bunbury and Maribyrnong Streets. It was built around 1859 by Ann Dowd (22) who was Margaret Pickett's sister.  Ann had arrived in Melbourne in 1850, with her husband Thomas Delaney and two children. Thomas died in May 1853, and she married Cuthbert Harrison in August 1854 - all up she had five children with Thomas Delaney and another six with Cuthbert Harrison (23). Ann was entrepreneurial and her husband took full advantage of this according to Footscray historian, John Lack - it was a fruitful economic partnership for Harrison. (24). The construction of the Ship Inn was technically organised by her husband, Cuthbert Harrison, but it was no doubt her money. You can also read about the life of Ann Dowd Delaney Harrison in Pubs, Punts and Pastures: the story of Pioneer Irish Women of the Salt Water River (25).

Does this tender refer to the Ship Inn?

The Argus February 26, 1858 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/7147168

Cuthbert Harrison also had the licence for the Rising Sun Hotel in Footscray.  The Rising Sun Hotel appears to have been opened around 1857 and one of the first references I can find to it in the newspapers is the April 1857 report of a County of Bourke Hotel Licencing session where Michael Dowd was granted the licence of the Hotel. Michael Dowd, who died at the age of 99 in 1881, was the father of Ann and Margaret Dowd.  In April 1858 the licence was granted to Cuthbert Harrison. (26)

Michael Dowd granted the licence of the Rising Sun Hotel in Footscray. Cut Paw Paw is name of the land administration Parish, which covers Footscray, Yarraville and Williamstown.

The Age April 22, 1857 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/154821016

An advertisement placed by Cuthbert Harrison letting some of his wife's blocks of land in Maribyrnong Street.

The Age, July 21, 1859. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5684855

As mentioned before, the Ship Inn lost its licence at a Licence Reduction Board hearing which began in May 1918. The hotel was demolished in 1970 or as John Lack wrote simply crumbled into pieces during demolition (27).

Report of the Licence Reduction Board, which resulted in the closure of the Ship Inn.

The Argus June 12, 1918  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1665434

This and the photo below are from a series of photos taken during the construction of the railway bridge over the Maribyrnong, March 1927. The Ship Inn is on the right, partly obscured by a wharf shed.

Pulling pile sheeting at Coffer dam, with steam hammer, March 17, 1923; South Kensington to West Footscray, bridge over the Maribyrnong River. Victorian Railways photographer. State Library of Victoria Image H28682/51

View down the Maribyrnong River, the Ship Inn can be seen on the right bank. March 1927.

View of north side of Maribyrnong River bridge March 19, 1927;South Kensington to West Footscray, bridge over the Maribyrnong River. Victorian Railways photographer. State Library of Victoria Image H28682/52

.....................................................................................................................

Sources

• Lack, John A history of Footscray (Hargreen Publishing, 1991)
• Early Melbourne Architecture 1840-1888: a photographic record compiled and edited by Maie Casey et al (Oxford University Press, 1953, 3rd edition 1975)
• Footscray: a pictorial record of the Municipality from 1859 to 1988 (City of Footscray, 1989). 
• Footscray & Yarraville:  a pictorial record (Footscray Historical Society, 2005)
• Footscray's first 100 years: the story of a great Australian City (City of Footscray, 1959)
• Pubs, Punts and Pastures: the story of Pioneer Irish Women of the Salt Water River by Joan Carstairs and Maureen Lane (St Albans Historical Society, 1988)

Footnotes
(1) Lack, John A history of Footscray (Hargreen Publishing, 1991), p. 45

James Maher was granted a licence for his hotel at the Annual Licensing Meeting for the District of Bourke, held Tuesday April 17, 1855. Report was in The Argus, April 19, 1855, see here.

(2) Report of James Maher's Insolvency was in The Argus, November 17, 1856, see here. He was still the Hotel in 1859 according to this article in Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle, January 29, 1859, see here.
(3) Punt Inn - Footscray's first 100 years: the story of a great Australian City (City of Footscray, 1959), unpaginated and Lack, op. cit., p. 410.
(4) Lack, op. cit., p. 39
(5) Lack, op. cit., p. 46 and Footscray & Yarraville:  a pictorial record (Footscray Historical Society, 2005) p. 46.
(6) The earliest newspaper reports on Trove using the search term Bridge Hotel Footscray date from 1863, the year the bridge opened. I have no other evidence.
(7)  The Leader, March 7, 1863, see here.
(8) Footscray's first 100 years: the story of a great Australian City, op.cit. unpaginated.
(9)  Living Museum of the West  website    https://www.livingmuseum.org.au/projects/stories_places/warves/FW_infrastructures_bridges.html
(10)  The Herald, July 9, 1906, see here and The Herald June 13, 1912, see here.
(11)  The Age April 26, 1907, see here.
(12)  The Age April 9, 1918, see here.
(13)  The Argus, May 5, 1926, see here.
(14)  The Argus of January 22, 1927 reported that the licensee of the Bridge Hotel (now delicensed) was charged with having disposed of liquour in prohibited hours on December 11. See full report, here.

(15) Footscray & Yarraville:  a pictorial record, op.cit., p. 46.
(16) Raisbeck and Campbell are listed in the 1950 Sands & McDougall Directory at the State Library of Victoria, but the 1945 edition. Access the Directories here https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/popular-digitised-collections
(17) Early Melbourne Architecture 1840-1888: a photographic record compiled and edited by Maie Casey et al (Oxford University Press, 1953, 3rd edition 1975)
(18) Footscray's first 100 years: the story of a great Australian City, op.cit., unpaginated.
(19) The information about Margaret Dowd Pickett comes from Pubs, Punts and Pastures: the story of Pioneer Irish Women of the Salt Water River by Joan Carstairs and Maureen Lane (St Albans Historical Society, 1988)
(20) Pubs, Punts and Pastures: the story of Pioneer Irish Women of the Salt Water River by Joan Carstairs and Maureen Lane (St Albans Historical Society, 1988)
(21) Lack, op. cit., p.388.
(22) Lack, op. cit., p. 410. On page 52, John Lack writes Ann Dowd brought the Junction Hotel site [corner Bunbury and Whitehall Street] in 1854, and Lynch's Maribyrnong Street properties in the same year, selling the former to Robert Jones and building the Ship Inn on the latter.
(23) Ann Dowd's family information comes from Pubs, Punts and Pastures: the story of Pioneer Irish Women of the Salt Water River, op. cit.
(24) Lack, op. cit., p. 52.

(25) See footnote 18.
(26) Lack, op. cit., p. 52; The Age April 22, 1857, see here;  The Age, April 22, 1858 see here;

(27) Lack, op. cit., p. 388.

Henri Rintel - hotel keeper, farmer and the Secretary of the Warragul Hospital

This is the story of Henri Rintel - hotel keeper, farmer and the Secretary of the Warragul Hospital from 1907 until 1922.

Henri Rintel, born in 1856, was the fifth of nine children of Moses Rintel, Melbourne's first ordained Rabbi (1)  and his wife Elvina Hart (2).  Moses Rintel, born in Edinburgh, Scotland had arrived in Sydney in 1844 where he served the Sydney Congregation as  the Principal of the Hebrew School (3).  In January 1849, he was appointed as the Reader of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation (4).  In 1857 he established the Mikveh Israel Melbourne Synagogue (5). The Congregation built a Synagogue on the corner of Exhibition Street and Little Lonsdale Street in 1859. I have written about this building, here.  In 1877 they built a new Synagogue in Albert Street, East Melbourne (6) which is still in use.

All I know about Henri's early days was that he was keen singer with a promising baritone voice (7).  Henri established an independent life for himself from the age of twenty when he applied for a grant of land, 23 acres,  in Lardner, off Lardner's Track, near Warragul (8). The next year he leased a store at Lardner situated on three acres (9) and he purchased it in 1878 (10).  Sadly in June 1879, his store was destroyed by fire (11). It was rebuilt and destroyed again by fire in February 1881 (12).  It was Henri's burnt store that gave its name to Burnt Store Road in Lardner (13).

Henri Rintel

Image: Buln Buln: a history of Buln Buln Shire  by Graeme Butler (Shire of Buln Buln, 1979) 

Some time after this Henry left Gippsland for the Western District were he took over the Excelsior Store with a Mr Fryberg in January 1886 (14).  Fryberg and Rintel sold Drapery, Millinery, Haberdashery, Clothing, Boots, Grocery, Ironmongery, Crockery, Tinware and Stationery (15).  Graeme Butler in his history of the Shire of Buln Buln, says that Rintel and Fryberg had opened a general store business  in 1881 at the corner of Shaw and Grant Tracks (16) - the business included an agency for the Singer Sewing Machine (17).  As business partners they also moved onto Camperdown, which was a short-lived venture. Their partnership was to dissolve in October 1886 (18).

Before we look at what Henri did next, we will have  a look at Mr Fryberg. In 1885, Henri and S.L Fryberg are listed as Officers of the King Solomon Lodge, No. 422 - Henri as the Worshipful Master and Fryberg as the Senior Warden (19).  It was not surprising that Henri was a Freemason as his father, Moses, was also a member, having joined a Lodge in Sydney in 1847 and later, was also a Member of the King Solomon Lodge, No. 422 (20). A Solomon Fryberg is also listed in the membership list of the Lodge (21) and a Solomon Leo Fryberg died in St Kilda in 1940, aged 83 (22).  I believe this is the man who was Henri's business partner.

Advertisement for Fryberg and Rintel, Camperdown

Camperdown Chronicle, February 10 1886 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22097153

After Camperdown, Henri took over as licensee of the Royal Mail Hotel on the Poowong Road for  a year from 1889 (23).  In 1890 he filed for bankruptcy, his occupation at this time was listed in reports as a store keeper of Jeetho (24).  Also in 1890 Henri married a widow, Jane Manning, and became an instant father to Jane's five children and their own son Horace, born in 1891, but more about his family life later.

In 1896 Henri was back into the hotel business and had the license of the Toolangi House Hotel (25). It was Henri that gave the hotel it's rather prosaic name, it had previously been called the 'Ye Olde Englishe Inne' (26). The Hotel was located on 220 acres and had 30 rooms (27).  Henri became involved with community life in Toolangi and was the Secretary of the Yarra Glen to Toolangi Railway League (28). We can place Henri and Jane at Toolangi until January 1901, when a clearing sale was held at the Hotel. Interestingly the clearing sale was advertised in Mrs Rintel's name, not that of Henri (29).  The Rintel family were given a social evening before leaving the district (30).

Toolangi House Hotel, owned by Henri and Jane Rintel

Toolangi House - Yea River Photographer: John Henry Harvey

State Library of Victoria Image H90.161/106

Henri and family returned to the Warragul area and Henri became involved in community life as the President of the Warragul Progress Association (31). Henri and Jane operated a dairy farm at Warragul South where they had success with the Alderney breed.  In fact, he considered the Alderney the best cow for West Gippsland (32). The Rintels retired from dairy farming in 1905 and a clearing sale was held and again it was advertised in Mrs Rintel's name, who is giving up dairying (33).  Mrs Rintel was a widow, so was the Toolangi Hotel and the Warragul farm purchased with 'her' money or was the fact that Henri had been made a bankrupt meant that he couldn't have or didn't want property in his name?

In 1907, Henri became the Secretary of the Warragul Hospital (34).  At the time it was a private hospital but on August 5, 1908 it opened as public hospital. There were naturally a number of speeches on the opening day and the President of the Narracan Shire, Cr Mahony, congratulated the committee on the work of their energetic secretary (Mr Rintel.) He deserved great credit for the manner in which he had maintained his enthusiasm and energy in working to make the project such a great success (35). The President of the Hospital Committee, Mr D. McNeil said that The committee also felt exceedingly grateful to the ladies who had inaugurated the kitchen fund (Mrs Rintel and Miss Manning) for the splendid service which they had rendered to the finances of the institution (36). 

This is now the time to take a look at Henri's family. He married, as we said, Jane Manning (nee Herity) in 1890. The wedding took place at Sale on February 25 by the Registrar of Marriages, so it was not a religious service (37).  Jane's first husband, Charles had died in 1888, when she was only 28 leaving her with five children, Charles Henty, Jane Eliza, Agnes Ellen, John Henry and Robert Francis (38). Henri and Jane were to have one child, Horace Lisle, who was born in Clunes on August 26, 1891 (39).

As a matter of interest, there was a report in Punch (40) of Henri's step-daughter's marriage. Jane wed Ernest Henry Jones, at the Catholic Presbytery in Warragul in 1910 (40).  The bride was given away by Horace, her half-brother.  The reception was held at the  Railway Hotel and a toast was made by  Mr Snowball, Grand Master of the Loyal Orange Lodge of Victoria. The report noted that both the Groom's father, Charles Jones,  and the Bride's step-father, Henri Rintel were Past Masters of the Grand Order of Freemasons. It was no wonder that the paper said that the wedding possessed some unique features (41) with that mixture of  Catholicism, the Protestant Loyal Orange Lodge and the Freemasons.

Henri's only biological son, Horace, married Gwendolyn Morey at Christ Church in St Kilda on November 17, 1916 (42).  Horace was a teacher, having graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Melbourne University and a Diploma of Teaching (43).  He enlisted in the A.I.F on July 20, 1915 and spent over a year assisting with training recruits. Horace was promoted to Lieutenant and embarked for overseas service on November 23, 1916, a few days after his wedding. He served in the 23rd Reinforcements, 8th Battalion and was sadly Killed In Action in Belgium on September 20, 1917 (44).

Horace Rintel is honoured on the Warragul War Memorial 

Unfortunately Horace's death did not bring the family together - there is a letter on his file at the National Archives from his wife Gwendolyn and one from Henri. The issue seemed to be where Horace's medals should go - Gwendolyn said that she had not been treated fairly by her husband's family. Henri wrote that Horace was secretly married unknown to any member of his family and that since his death Gwendolyn had treated them with callous indifference and if she received any medals then she would appreciate them for their monetary value only. The letters were written in 1921 and the eventual decision was the British War Medal and the Memorial scroll would go to the widow and the Victory Medal and Memorial Plaque would go to Henri (45).

I cannot tell you why Horace and Gwendolyn got married without telling the family. I don't know how they met, Gwendolyn was a 22 year old teacher and living in St Kilda at the time of the marriage (46).  Gwendolyn was Principal of Faireleight School, in Alma Road, St Kilda from 1919 until 1923 and after Faireleight closed she took up a position at Toorak College (47). She never remarried and died in 1966 at the age of 72 (48).  Horace had been teaching at Ballarat Grammar School when he enlisted and in December 1921, the school named a racing boat after him. The Head Master was reported as saying that  it was fitting that the boat should be named 'H. L. Rintel’ in memory of one who as master here in our earliest days, did so much good both in and out of school amongst the boys with whom he worked, and who afterwards gave his life for his country. The report goes on to say that on the day of the boat race the new boat was christened by Mrs Rintel in the presence of a large number of spectators (49).  Horace is remembered on two Great War Memorials -  The Memorial Gates at Ballarat Grammar, which were dedicated in May 1924 (50) and the Warragul War Memorial.

Horace's half brother, Charles Manning, was also Killed in Action, on July 7, 1915 at Gallipoli. Another half brother, John, died on August 31, 1919 at the age of 36. John has also enlisted in the A.I.F, but was discharged on medical grounds (Cardiac irregularities) (51).  Perhaps that is why Jane and Henri fought so hard for Horace's medals as they already felt they had lost so much. Jane died in Kerang on December 18, 1921 (52).  Henri had also been at Kerang, where they were living with their daughter, Jane Eliza Jones. He had to reluctantly relinquish his position as Secretary of the Hospital due to ill health, but he decided to return to Warragul to spend his last days (53).

This is the Warragul Hospital as Henri would have known it.

Image: The Path of Progress: from forests of yesterday to homes of to-day by Hugh Copeland (Shire of Warragul, 1934) Photographer: H. S. Reeves.  The image has been cropped.

Henri had many visits from his old friends and his Masonic brethren raised money for a tricycle for Henri to help him get around. This was reported in the West Gippsland Gazette where Mr. Rintel said he could not thank them as he would wish. The loss of his only son at the war, followed by the death of his sister, and then his wife, had left him feeling very desolate at times, and this spontaneous act of kindness and remembrance was like a ray of sunshine in the gloom (54).

His Masonic friends were not his only visitors, Hugh Copeland, in his history of the Shire of Warragul, says that Henri was a friend of Sir John Monash, and 'the little doctor' (Dr Maloney, M.H.R.), who visited him in hospital before he died there (55).

We will return to the West Gippsland Gazette for their final tribute to Henri Rintel who died on Saturday, March 3, 1923 - Death of Mr Rintel - Impressive Masonic Service - Many friends throughout this district will regret to learn of the death on Saturday night, at the Warragul District Hospital, of Mr. Henri Rintel, the late secretary of that institution. For many years he held that post, until failing health compelled him to relinquish it, and he went north to Kerang to join his family. As he did not improve, he felt a keen desire to return to his favorite institution, and after several months of weary illness, he passed away on Saturday night. It is not too much to say that the late secretary was one of the original founders of the Warragul District Hospital in 1908, and it was he who did all the original organising work in converting the private institution into a public district hospital. For many subsequent years he filled the position of secretary and collector, and it is largely due to his untiring energy and his unbounded enthusiasm that the institution was placed on such a substantial foundation, and has been the means of untold blessing and relief to thousands of sufferers in the intervening years. Surely one could hardly conceive or wish for a more beautiful and enduring memory than this to know that one's constant efforts had been usefully directed to the benefit and blessing of his fellow men and women. Now the work is over, and the realisation of what he has been able to do should contribute to that serenity and peace of soul which is to be so earnestly desired.

The funeral took place yesterday morning, the cortege leaving the Masonic Hall - where full Masonic honors were accorded the deceased shortly after 11 o'clock the service at the grave was conducted by the Rev. P. W Robinson, and the beautiful and impressive ritual of the Masonic Order was read by Bro. Cromie, W.M. and participated in by a number of the brethren of the Gippsland Forest Lodge (56).

Henri's unmarked grave at the old Warragl Cemetery.

Henri's funeral, which took place on Monday, March 5,  was conducted by the Anglican Minister and so I wondered if Henri still had a connection to his Jewish faith. Jane was not Jewish, thus Horace was not Jewish: his enlistment papers have his religion as Church of England. We know that Henri did not have  a religious wedding. There are two references to Henri's Jewishness in The Path of Progress, a history of Warragul, published in 1934. One reference refers to him as a well-known Jewish character (57) and another reference describes Henri as a Jew, with a fund of Yiddish anecdotes (58).  The Hebrew Standard of Australasia, a Sydney paper did report on August 25, 1922 that Mr. Henri Rintel, one of the surviving sons of the late Rev. M. Rintel is an inmate of the hospital at Terang (59). Apart from getting the town wrong, it was Kerang not Terang, they did consider that one of the sons of Melbourne's first Rabbi was still of interest to the Jewish community.  I believe that in spite of the funeral being conducted by the Anglican Minister that Henri never converted to Christianity and reading the funeral report it seems that the most prominent feature of the service was the Masonic component. Rabbi Moses Rintel, was a dedicated member of the Freemasons and held the position of the Very Worshipful Provincial Grand Chaplin for fifteen years and Henri's dedication to the Freemasons was as enduring as that of his father (60).

Henri is buried at the Warragul Cemetery in an unmarked grave, but he is remembered in the town by Rintel Court. Rintel Court is off Landsborough Road and is close to where Henri's fine homestead  was located (61).   It is also a few 100 metres from the Warragul Hospital, the  institution that he worked tirelessly for as the Secretary for over fifteen years and where he passed away.

Rintel Court, Warragul

............................................................................................................................

Trove list
I have created  a list of newspaper articles on Henri Rintel and his family, you can access it here.

Sources
(1) Moses Rintel (1823-1880) - You can read his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here. Rabbi  Moses' appointment is also discussed in length in The Jews in Victoria in the  Nineteenth Century by Lazarus Morris Goldman, published by the Author in 1954.
(2) Moses Rintel and Elvina Hart (1823-1904) married on August 22, 1849. She was the daughter of John and Isabella (nee Levy) Hart. They had nine children Henri John (1850-1850), Isabella (1851-1921), Myer (1853-1914), Edward (1854-1913), Henri (1856-1923), Simeon (1858-1919), Walter (1859-1925), Adelaide (1862-1916) and Sarah (1867-1893).
(3) Goldman, Lazarus Morris The Jews in Victoria in the  Nineteenth Century (The Author, 1954) p. 62.
(4) Goldman, op. cit., p. 62.
(5) Goldman, op. cit., Chapter 12 - A New Congregation.
(6)  Goldman, op. cit., pp 250, 251.
(7) The Leader, December 24, 1875, see here.
(8) Butler, Graeme Buln Buln: a history of Buln Buln Shire (Shire of Buln Buln, 1979) p. 211.
(9) Buter, op. cit., p. 210.
(10)  Butler, op. cit., p. 210.
(11)  Butler, op. cit., p. 210.
(12)  Butler, op. cit., p. 210.
(13)  Butler, op. cit., p. 210. Also mentioned in Copeland, Hugh The Path of Progress: from forests of yesterday to homes of to-day  (Shire of Warragul, 1934) on page 434,
(14) Camperdown Chronicle, January 23 1886, see here.
(15) Camperdown Chronicle, February 10, 1886, see here.
(16)  Butler, op. cit., p. 211. Not really sure where the intersection of Shaw and Grant Track is.
(17)  Butler, op. cit., p. 211.
(18)  The Argus, October 27, 1886, see here.
(19) Jewish Herald, December 11, 1885  see here.
(20) Members of the early Australian Lodges can be found on Ancestry, where the Ireland, Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland Membership Registers, 1733-1923 and the United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921 have been digitised.
(21) Henri and Solomon Fryberg are both registered in the King Solomon Lodge, No. 422 on May 1, 1881. See Note 20, above.
(22) Index to Victorian Birth, Deaths and Marriages, https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/
(23) Warragul Guardian, May 9 1890, see here.
(24) The Age, September 27, 1890, see here.
(25) Lilydale Express January 8, 1897, see here.
(26) Lilydale Express January 8, 1897, see here.
(27) Lilydale Express, April 3, 1896, see here.
(28) Healesville Guardian, May 12, 1899   see here.
(29) Evelyn Observer, January 11, 1901, see here.
(30) Healesville and Yarra Glen Guardian, January 18 1901, see here.
(31) West Gippsland Gazette, February 14, 1905, see here.
(32) West Gippsland Gazette, August 25, 1903, see here.
(33) West Gippsland Gazette, November 7, 1905, see here.
(34) West Gippsland Gazette, July 2, 1907, see here. This is the first reference I can find if Henri being listed as Secretary.
(35)  West Gippsland Gazette, August 11, 1908, see here. Comprehensive report of the opening and the work required to bring the old building up to scratch.
(36)  West Gippsland Gazette, August 11, 1908, see here.
(37) This information comes from the Marriage certificate.
(38)  Jane's children with her first husband, Charles Manning, come from the Victorian and New South Wales Indexes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(39) This information comes from Horace's Birth certificate.
(40) Punch, January 13, 1910, see here.
(41) Punch, January 13, 1910, see here.
(42)  This information comes from the Marriage Certificate.
(43)  West Gippsland Gazette, January 5, 1915, see here.
(44)  National Archives of Australia - First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920  see Horace's file here
(45) National Archives of Australia - First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920  see Horace's file and the letters from his wife and father here
(46)  This information comes from the Marriage Certificate.
(47)  The Argus, November 19, 1923, see here.
(48)  Index to Victorian Birth, Deaths and Marriages, https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/
(49)  Ballarat Star, December 17, 1921, see here.
(50)  Ballarat Star, May 5, 1924, see here.
(51) National Archives of Australia - First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920
(52)  Her death notice was in The Argus, December 20, 1921, see here.
(53)  West Gippsland Gazette, March 6, 1923, see here.
(54)  West Gippsland Gazette, February 7, 1922, see here. The sister he refers to is Isabella Rintel (Mrs Abraham Stern) who died February 3, 1921.
(55) Copeland, Hugh The Path of Progress: from forests of yesterday to homes of to-day  (Shire of Warragul, 1934),  p. 435. Sir John Monash - Engineer and General, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here. Dr Maloney is William Robert Maloney - Doctor, Politician and Humanitarian, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography here.
(56)  West Gippsland Gazette, March 6, 1923, see here.
(57) Copeland, op. cit p. 38.
(58) Copeland, op. cit., p. 435.
(59) Hebrew Standard of Australasia, August 25, 1922, see here.
(60) Jewish Herald, September 10, 1880, see here.
(61) Copeland, op. cit., p. 18.