Skip to main content

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?

Labels:

Comments

  1. GeniAusMay 14, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    Thanks - Mr Geniaus has a few ancestors from Melbourne - will dig oout addresses and take a look.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 15, 2011 at 9:03 AM

    Great tip, thanks. I've referred it to Mr Cassmob whose family came from Melbourne. Looks like super information.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 27, 2011 at 8:09 PM

    Interesting blog. It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you. Fencing Melbourne

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caroline Chisholm

I am currently in England visiting my daughter who is working in London. Naturally I decided I would have to spend some time on genealogical pursuits. The problem was where would I choose for a few day's retreat from London? In the end I decided to go to Northampton to visit the grave of Caroline Chisholm. Caroline is known as the immigrant's friend. She was a well known social reformer of her day. Why is Caroline significant to me and my family? You may recall that Caroline Chisholm was on the original $5 note in Australia. As well as her image there was a picture of a ship. That ship was the Waverley . Caroline agitated at the Home Office to reunite the wives and families of convicts with their husbands and fathers. On 22 June 1847 she wrote that she ‘had just left the Home Office and had obtained a passage per Waverley for forty-nine souls.’ SMH 9 August 1847, extract from letter 30 March 1847. My great great grandmother Matilda Agnew, her older siblings James, Joh...
14 comments
Read more

Family Homes - No 3 - Moolan Downs, Queensland

My previous Family Home post showed the childhood home of Catherine Ellen Dawson . After leaving Tasmania Catherine moved to Melbourne with her mother and siblings after the death of her father Dr William Lee Dawson. Catherine married Gustav Baumgarten in Melbourne on 30th November 1876. They lived at Pleasant Bank Vineyard at Barnawatha.  According to the Cyclopedia of Victoria they had 180 acres of vines, 465 acres of agricultural and grazing land and a further 300 acres under cultivation.   During 1908 the Baumgarten family moved from Barnawatha to Moolan Downs, near Meandarra west of Dalby. They left a thriving business with an established homestead and moved to western Queensland. One of their first tasks when they arrived was to build the dwelling shown below. Original dwelling at Moolan Downs - c1908 The second house at Moolan Downs The final homestead at Moolan Downs One can only admire our early pioneering families. Gustav died at Moolan Downs...
15 comments
Read more