City of Melbourne - iHeritage database

Do you have ancestors who lived in Melbourne? If so take a look at the City of Melbourne iHeritage database. This database allows you to search for a specific address, browse suburbs, architectural styles and builders. When you have located the specific property you can see the complete heritage details for the property.

Details include (if known):

Architectural style

Period

Construction Date

Architect

First Owner

Integrity

Condition

Original Building Type

History

Description/Notable Features

Current photograph

My great great grandmother Emma Seabrook (Dawson) died at No 1 Hope Terrace, Gipps Street, East Melbourne in 1885. At the time she lived with her sister and her husband Louisa and George Edward Lowe.

Hope Terrace 161-165 Gipps Street, East Melbourne. Dec 2006.

As you can see by the extract below, the description of the building is quite detailed.

A row of three, two-storeyed houses, of which No. 165 possesses a porte cochere (I.e. a porch, large enough to accommodate wheeled vehicles). The row is decorated to present a single identity, i.e.. the parapet is plain, and unbroken over the three houses and there is a central basket-arched 'entablature' flanked by scrolling. The cornice is dentillated. All windows are square-headed and are panelled internally between the sill and the floor level. One of the three openings at the first level being an access door to the balcony. (Aluminium glazing bars have been superimposed over the window joinery). The door has a square-headed toplight and is six-panelled. The verandah is single-posted, with finished-brackets supporting panelled friezes consisting of a star motif, superimposed on the serpentine motif. The balustrade panels are bellied and are similarly decorated, using a panel and frieze work, registered by William Hutchinson in April 1870. The timber fascia is dentillated at the first level. Fairly restrained ornament is placed on the dividing walls, I.e. consoles support decorated panels at the two levels. The palisade fence is intact; the picket heads being of a fleur-de -lys pattern. The porte cochere is provided by means of exposed riveted iron beams supporting the rooms above, a tall bluestone plinth producing the necessary hardy dado along the porch's walls. No. 165 is given an extra bay of rooms at first level, to provide the space underneath. At the rear, the skillions are not joined and hence enjoy light from both sides. (City of Melbourne, iHeritage database - Hope Terrace, Gipps Street, East Mebourne)

As so many properties bear no resemblance to their earlier days, it’s quite exciting to find the house of an ancestor which still looks very similar to what it looked like over 100 years ago.  But there are still so many questions. What rooms were inside? How was it decorated? Did George Edward Lowe have a carriage to park in the porte cochere? 

Can you find where you ancestors lived?