Saturday, September 12, 2020

Kalara, Grey Street - St Kilda's birthplace of the Helena Rubinstein Beauty Empire

In 1901, Helena Juliet Rubinstein, moved into Mrs Isabella Stern's boarding house Kalara at 77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda (1).  A year or so later, Helena's cosmetics business was established, which by the time of her death in 1965 was worth 60 million dollars (2).  It is accepted that James Thompson, the Managing Director of the Robur Tea Company, was instrumental in the establishment of Helena's business by providing financial, business and marketing support and advice. It is said that they met while she was waitressing at the Winter Garden Tea Rooms in the basement of the Block Arcade or the Cafe Maison Doree in Swanston Street (3), but new evidence has come to light that they first met at Mrs Stern's boarding house, and thus 77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda can be considered to be the birthplace of the Helena Rubinstein's beauty empire.


Helena Rubinstein in 1904
Image: War Paint: Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, their lives, their times, their rivalry 
by Lindy Woodhead (Virago, 2003) (4)

We know that Helena lived for  a time with Mrs Stern's but because of  a robbery at the boarding house we now know that James Thompson also lived there. Mrs Stern made a police report on December 2, 1904 that a  silver cigarette case and light-grey tweed coat, belonging to Morris Kozminsky and a flat top pearl shirt stud; a gold round knob scarf pin and a pair of boots with patent leather toes belonging to James H. Thompson were stolen from her premises.

Robbery Report at the boarding house
Victorian Police Gazette, No. 49. December 8, 1904

We will look at the main characters in this story starting with Isabella Stern, who owned the building where Helena first met James. Isabella Stern was the second child of nine of Rabbi Moses and Elvina Rintel. The Rabbi had arrived in Sydney in 1844 where he served the Sydney Congregation as  the Principal of the Hebrew School.  In January 1849, he was appointed as the Reader of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, and in 1857 he established the Mikveh Yisrael Melbourne Synagogue (5). Elvina's father, John Hart had served in the British Navy in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, later migrated to America and then Australia. He died at his house, Trafalgar Cottage, Albert Street in Windsor in January 1864 (6).

Isabella, aged 24,  married Abraham Stern, aged 37, on September 15, 1875. Her father officiated at the wedding, held at the Synagogue in Lonsdale Street. Abraham was born in Schirwindt in Prussia and his father, Louis, was also a Rabbi. They had three daughters, Ruby, Eda and Rita. The family first lived in Victoria Street in Carlton, later moved to Dalgety Street in St Kilda and around 1895 they moved to 79 Grey Street (7). 77 and 79 Grey Street are two adjoining residences, made of brick, each of nine principal rooms which had been built three years earlier by Gavin Shaw, a wine merchant (8).  Shaw was also the Mayor of St Kilda for two years from 1881 (9).  After his death in June 1894, his widow Jane owned the property, and the Sterns leased it from her (10). We know that the Sterns later owned both 77 and 79 Grey Street and they possibly purchased it from Jane Shaw's estate, after she died in May 1900 (11).

I wonder if that is when the Sterns decided to operate a boarding house to help defray some of the cost of purchasing the properties. Abraham's occupation in the Rate books and Electoral roll was that of warehouseman. He was a wholesaler in the drapery business, and had retired selling his entire stock by tender in  April 1908 (12).


77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda, an imposing duplex built 1892.
Photo: Isaac Hermann

Grey Street at the time was highly regarded by the well-to-do citizens of Melbourne as a place to live (13) and it would not have been hard for Mrs Stern to attract boarders. Maurice Kozminsky, who was also a victim of the robbery, was the son of Abraham and Esther (nee Goldberg) Kozminsky. Abraham's occupation in the Electoral Roll was listed as an Investor and Maurice was a commercial traveller. In March 1906, the Kozminsky family held their son Clifford's Bar Mitzvah at Kalara, 77 Grey Street. In the 1903 Electoral Roll the family was at 32 Beaconsfield Parade but from the 1906 Electoral Rolls they were at 6 Burnett Street, St Kilda and it appears they were living with Mrs Stern for just a short time (14).  6 Burnett Street was for sale by auction in April 1905 (15), and though the Kozminsky's purchased it then, they looked to have been temporarily staying at Mrs Stern's boarding house, while it was being renovated.  Maurice enlisted in the A.I. F. in May 1915, with the rank of 2nd Lieutanant, and sadly died of wounds (gun shot wound - abdomen) in France in August 1916. His brother, Clifford, also served in the First World War (16). Abraham was the brother of Simon Kozminsky, the jeweller and antiques dealer, who started his business in Melbourne in the 1860s (17).

James Thompson, was a tea merchant, associated with the name of Robur Tea from 1893 when he and a Mr Bell produced a booklet for the tea Hawthorn, Rhodes & Co., called Tea, its origin, cultivation, manufacture, effects on the human system, and how to tell good tea. The authors looked at various brands of tea and said Robur Tea was prepared on scientific lines and would produce a perfect tea. This booklet was sent to newspaper offices in Victoria, who then gave column space to the ideas set forth in the booklet and thus Robur Tea gained some publicity and  brand recognition (18). By 1900, James was the President of the Robur Tea Company (19).  In 1903 his address in the  Electoral Rolls was 79 Grey Street, where, as we know, he was the victim of a robbery and where he also met Helena Rubinstein.

Accounts of Helena's life are many and varied, it's hard to pin down dates and Helena herself also gave different birth dates throughout her life and embellished her life story, so what follows is as accurate as can be surmised. Helena was born in the 1870s (20)  in Krakow in Poland and arrived on the Prince Regent Luitpold in September 1896 (21).  She then stayed with her uncles, Louis and Bernhard Silberfeld in Coleraine in western Victoria (22). They had a fancy-goods shop in town, though she found that many of the local women were keen to buy her face-cream that she had brought with her from Poland. This cream had been made by her mother's friend Jacob Lykulokis, a Hungarian chemist (23).  After three years in Coleraine, some sources say that she worked as governess for the Fairbairn family of Meltham of Geelong; this leading to a year's position as Governess to Lord Lamington, the Queensland Governor, in Toowomba (24).  After Helena returned to Melbourne around 1901, she became a nanny, at Linden, the Acland Street home of Moritz Michaelis and family (25).

Firstly to free herself from the stricture of living-in domestic work she took a room at Mrs Stern's boarding house in Grey Street, St Kilda (26) where she met James Thompson.  To support herself, she worked as a waitress at the Winter Garden Tea Rooms and the Cafe Maison Doree. James and Helena formed a friendship, but were they lovers?  Perhaps they consorted, though as both were single, their dalliance was not an adulterous one, as others have inferred. (27).

In 1902, the Winter Gardens Tea Room was the venue for their business meeting which Helena attended with her sister, Ceska, who had recently arrived from Krakow. At this meeting James introduced his artistic designer, who helped to create a label  for Helena's cream. James also introduced her to a printer, for the production of  labels, which James financed with a £100 loan or gift.  It is also said that she  borrowed £250 to establish a beauty salon at 138 Elizabeth Street, and most likely this money also came from Thompson (28).  In February 1903, Helena trade-marked, a toilet preparation known as skin food and at the same time trademarked the distinctive label, though not the name. The name Valaze was not trademarked until June 1905 (29).


The distinctive label, trademarked by Helena Rubinstein in February 1903.
The label is written in Polish an approximate translation of which is - removes wrinkles freckles impetigo, gives face delicate fair transparent.
National Archives of Australia  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5003647

I had a look at the newspapers on Trove to find the first time Valaze was mentioned as a product and came across this advertisement, below, which markets the preparation as Dr Lykulokis' product.


Early advertisement for Valaze.

On February 26, 1903 Table Talk had an advertorial on the product, extolling the virtues of Dr Lykulokis' Valase, imported by Helena Rubinstein & Co. of 138 Elizabeth Street. Helena had learnt from James Thompson the value of free publicity under the guise of editorial content.  Table Talk explains what Valaze was - Valaze is really a skin food, which is prepared by the most celebrated of all the European skin specialists, Dr. Lykuski (sic), from herbs which grow in the Carpathian Mountains, the dividing range between Galicia and Hungary. It is in no sense a "make-up" ; in fact, it is not visible upon the skin in any way. It is in the truest sense of the word a "skin food." When rubbed into the skin it is absorbed into the pores, and creates a perfectly healthy condition. By its aid all impurities are removed, and the skin becomes re-invigorated (30).

One month after the first advertisement appeared, and two days after the Table Talk promotion, another advertisement, below, appeared for Valaze and this time there was no mention of Dr Lykulokis at all.


Advertisement for Valaze Skin Food.
The Argus February 28, 1903 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9825760 

Australian women fell in love with the product and sales earnt Helena £12,000 in two years, enabling a move to 243 Collins Street (31). Initially the potion was imported from Europe, but it was soon made in her own laboratory with the ingredients coming from the firm of Felton, Grimwade & Co. They were a drug company, and later branched out into glass manufacturing (the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works (32)) and a chemical works. They most likely also supplied the glass containers for her potions as well. It is possible that Helena was introduced to one of the founders of the company, Frederick Grimwade, by Moritz Michaelis (33). 




Trademark application for name Valaze.
National Archives of Australia  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5027799

In 1905, the year she trade-marked the name Valase, Helena went to Europe to study skin treatments and upon her return opened the Valaze Institute at 274 Collins Street, which was a full service beauty parlour (34). On May 17, 1907, Helena applied for Australian citizenship and her referee was  Frederick Grimwade, of Felton, Grimwade & Co., who attested to her good character (35).


An original Helena Rubinstein & Co. of Melbourne bottle, likely to have been manufactured by the Felton, Grimwade & Co. subsidiary, Melbourne Glass Bottle Works. 



In 1908 Helena took her company overseas and it became successful on an international scale. Helena had drive, energy and highly developed business acumen. An acquaintance from the early days in Melbourne, Abel Isaacson, is quoted as saying  Without Mr Thompson - he was the manager of the Robur Tea Company - she wouldn't have done what she did. He helped her. He taught her. He made her. Mark my words, he was the brains behind the little lady' (36). Would Helena have had the success that she did,  had she has not met James Thompson in Mrs Stern's boarding house? We will never know, but Kalara, 77-79 Grey Street deserves its place in history as the birthplace of  a global cosmetic empire.

Acknowledgements
I first found out about Helena's connection to Isabella Stern's boarding house, from my research colleague, Isaac Hermann, who sent me the link to Cosmetics and Skin  http://cosmeticsandskin.org/companies/helena-rubinstein.php  I then found this report of the robbery at Mrs Sterns.



The Age December 3, 1904 

The report noted the date that the robbery took place and an address in Grey Street, though it wasn't until I found the original report in the Police Gazette on Ancestry that we had the correct address. Then Isaac realised that Mr James Thompson, was Helena's mentor and so we gathered that their first meeting was not a cafe in Melbourne but Mrs Stern's boarding house where they both lived. The research in this post is very much a collaboration between Isaac and myself. Isaac also supplied the photos of the cobalt blue Helena Rubinstein bottle.

Footnotes 
 (1) Woodhead, Lindy War Paint: Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, their lives, their times, their rivalry (Virago, 2003), p. 44. Also quoted in the website Cosmetics and Skin: Stories from the history and science of cosmetics, skin-care and early Beauty Culture http://cosmeticsandskin.org/companies/helena-rubinstein.php 
(2) Poynter, J. R Helena Rubinstein - Australian Dictionary of Biography entry http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rubinstein-helena-8293 
(3) Woodhead, op. cit. p. 47 implies she met Thompson at the Winter Garden Tea Rooms. The Cosmetics and Skin website says they met at the Cafe Maison Dore.
(4) This was Helena's press photo that she supplied to Table Talk in 1904. The image credit in Lindy Woodhead's book is the Helena Rubinstein Foundation.
(5)  I have written about Rabbi Rintel and the establishment of his Mikveh Yisrael Synagogue, here. I have also written about Henri Rintel, Isabella's brother, here.
(6)  John Hart's life is partly mentioned in his son, Henri's obituary in the Jewish Herald of May 2, 1884, see here. John's death notice, published in The Argus of January 25, 1864, tells us that he lived and died at Trafalgar Cottage in Windsor, see here.
(7) Isabella Rintel and Abraham Stern - information about their marriage, his birth place and parents come from their marriage certificate. They had three daughters - Ruby (1876-1945, married Edward Lazarus in 1909, they had no children; Eda (1878-1879) and Rita (1881-1960, never married). The birth notices of the daughters provided the Victoria Street address and the St Kilda Rate Books available on Ancestry provided the Dalgety Street address and the move to Grey Street.
(8) Victorian Heritage Database citation https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1113
(9) Gavin Shaw died aged 64 on June 2, 1894. You can read his obituary in the Prahan Telegraph of June 9, 1894, here.
(10) St Kilda Rate books, available on Ancestry.
(11) Isabella died February 3, 1921. Her will (on-line at the Public Records Office of Victoria) lists all her property, including 77 and 79 Grey Street. Jane Shaw died May 18, 1900 Her death notice was in both the Argus and The Age the next day.
(12) Abraham Stern - you can read the list of his goods that were put to tender in April 1908 in The Age, April 1, 1908, see here (last column, under Tenders). Abraham died April 8, 1912. He had a short obituary in the Jewish Herald of April 12, 1912, see here. He and Isabella are buried at Brighton Cemetery.
(13) Victorian Heritage Database citation https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1113
(14) Information about the Kozminsky family comes from the Electoral Rolls on Ancestry. The information about Clifford's Bar Mitvah was from a snippet in the Jewish Herald March 24, 1905, see here.
(15) I assume that they purchased 6 Burnett Street in April 1905, and that a renovation was the reason they were temporarily at Mrs Stern's boarding house.  6 Burnett Street was described as a semi-detached two-storied brick and cement residence, known containing drawing, dining, breakfast rooms, kitchen, scullery, wash house, 8 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, spacious tiled verandahs and balconies. Attached to the house, on the south side, is a  large billiard room, of wood. The outbuildings and stables are also of wood. The Age, April 8, 1905, see here. See the Victorian Heritage Database citation for 6 Burnett Street, here.
(16) National Archives of Australia. Maurice's A.I.F record can be read here and Clifford's here.
(17)


An advertisement for Simon Kozmisky's business from Punch, November 21, 1907

(18) Thompson and Bell's booklet was reported on in The Launceston Examiner of July 15, 1893; The Herald, August 24, 1893 The Kyneton Observer, August 31, 1893, The Avoca Mail, September 5, 1893. 
(19) Letter to the Editor of The Age, November 29, 1900, see here.
(20) Her record on the passenger list for the Prince Regent Luitpold, the ship she arrived in Melbourne on in September 1896, says she was 20, thus born 1876; her Australian Naturalisation papers have her birth date as Christmas Day, 1897. She died April 1, 1065 and claimed to be 94, this born 1871.  
(21) Unassisted Passenger List at the Public Records Office of Victoria and Ancestry.


Helena's record from the Prince Regent Luitpold - she embarked from Genoa, her age was 20 and nationality listed as German.
(22) Louis and Bernhard were her mother's brothers. Louis Silberfeld, a bachelor, who died April 23, 1908 at the age of 54, had the store at Coleraine with his brother and then a grocery store at Merino. You can read a short obituary in the Hamilton Spectator of April 27, 1908, here. He was granted a Grocer's License for Merino in December 1905, see Hamilton Spectator, December 9, 1905, here. He is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.
Bernhard Silberfeld died June 25, 1923, aged 86. He had one daughter, Eva, who married Louis Levy (divorced in 1896). Eva had three sons, Reg, Fred and Theo. The three boys all enlisted in the First World War, Fred was discharged on medical grounds, but the other two served overseas. Bernhard is buried at Brighton Cemetery.
(23) Gardiner, Frank  The Fields of Coleraine (published by the Author, 2003), pp. 165-166.
(23) Woodhead, op. cit., pp 42-46; Poynter, op. cit -  ADB entry, see here. Helena's Naturalisation application  from May 1907, has this time-line: Arrived in Australia July 1897 on the Prince Regent Luitpold; three years in Coleraine, one year in Toowomba and five years in Melbourne.
(24) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 46.
(25) Lindy Woodhead, p. 46, says she was a nanny at Morty Michaelis. 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. Linden, is now owned by the City of Port Phillip and is an art gallery, see here and read the Victorian Heritage Database citation, here.
(26) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 46.
(27) Woodhead (p. 47) said they were lovers and that the relationship was doomed due to the inevitability there was a Mrs Thompson. The relationship may have been doomed but James Thompson did not get married until 1906. This was to Isabella Grist (nee Hutchings) and they had one daughter together, Thelma Belle, born on March 27, 1908.  Isabella died September 1918 at the age of 50. Thelma married Frank Hartley in May 1930, you can read a report and see a photo of the lovely bride, here in Table Talk, May 22, 1930. James died on August 23, 1933, aged 72. Helena married Edward William Titus in 1908 in London. They had two sons, Roy and Horace, read about the marriage in the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(28) Poynter, op. cit -  ADB entry, see here.
(29) The trade mark applications are digitsed at the National Archives - the 1903 application can be read here and the June 1905 application here.
(30) Table Talk, February 26, 1903, see here.
(31) Poynter, op. cit -  ADB entry, see here.
(32) Melbourne Glass Bottle Works established in 1872 and in the 1920s amalgamated with Australian Glass Manufacturers, and later became Australian Consolidated Industries. Source: Encyclopedia of Australian Science, see here.
(33) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 48; Cosmetics and Skin website, see here. Felton, Grimwade & Co - established by Alfred Felton (1831-1904), read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here and Frederick Shepphard Grimwade (1840-1910), read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here. It is Lindy Woodhouse (p. 48) who suggests that Helena was introduced to Frederick Grimwade by Moritz Michaelis.
(34) Poynter, op. cit -  ADB entry, see here.
(35) Citizenship application has been digitised and can be accessed on the National Archives of Australia, see here.
(36) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 46

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

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 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.

Friday, September 4, 2020

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.

Friday, August 28, 2020

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 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.



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?


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.


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 hereThe Age, April 22, 1858 see here;
(27) Lack, op. cit., p. 388.