block 01
block 02 FORMER RUSSELL’S CORNER SHOP 328 – 330 King Street
-Georgian style building, this combined shop and residence was built in 1850. can be seen in a photo taken from Flagstaff Gardens in 1867. ‘The Russell Corner Shop is clearly visible near the exact centre of the image.”
SOURCE https://marvmelb.blogspot.com/2012/11/melbournes-oldest-buildings.html
Block 03
history of block see here>> BLOCK 03
>>Melbourne Mint
Block 04 JOHN SMITH’S HOUSE 300 Queen Street
5
BLOCK 6
The Bowen Street (west) wing was built with £5000 from the Hon Francis Ormond MLC, founder of the Working Man’s College, and £10,600 from Trades Hall Council members and the public. This wing housed the main lecture hall, workshops, classrooms and caretaker quarters.
The La Trobe Street (east) wing was added in 1891 at a cost of £13,700, financed by government funding and a bequest from Ormond, who died in 1889. This wing completed the original vision for the building and comprised offices, large classrooms, photography and chemistry laboratories, and rooms for the college’s council and instructors.
Additions since 1891 include an extension to the east wing’s first floor to create an engineering drafting room, a new internal staircase in the 1930s, and a weatherboard extension to the cottage. A fire in 1953 required rebuilding much of the interior that faces La Trobe Street, and a second floor of classrooms was added to the east wing in 1955.
Building dates
This building was the first home of the Working Men’s College and was built in two stages.
The first was the Bowen Street wing which included the main lecture hall, workshops, classrooms and caretaker’s quarters. The Hon Francis Ormond MLC (pictured, right), a grazier and philanthropist–and founder of the Working Men’s College–donated £5000 and the rest of the £10,600 was raised by public donations and a levy paid by members of the Trades Hall Council.
The Bowen Street wing was completed in 1886 but, because it still had to be fitted out and furnished, classes did not commence in the lecture hall until the June in the following year.
The La Trobe Street wing and tower block were added in 1890, completing the original vision for the building. This £13,700 addition was financed by the bequest of the Hon. Francis Ormond, who died the previous year, and some government funding. When completed in 1892, the La Trobe Street wing provided offices, College Council and instructors’ rooms, large classrooms, and laboratories for photography and practical chemistry on the top floor.
The three storey brick structure is faced with Barrabool stone with Waurn Ponds dressings. Architect Percy Oakden taught at the Working Men’s College.
Adjoining the college in the 1890s were the Supreme Court and the Melbourne Gaol. Bowen Street was at that time a thoroughfare with a pub, a boys’ home and various business premises.
A number of significant additions have been made to the original 1887-91 Francis Ormond Building. These include the first floor extension of the east wing to provide an engineering drafting room, a new internal staircase (built in the 1930s), weatherboard additions to the cottage, and the two outdoor toilet blocks. The second floor of the east wing was constructed as additional classrooms in 1955. Much of the interior space fronting La Trobe Street was remodelled following a 1953 fire which required a whole bay of the building to be reconstructed.
see https://www.rmit.edu.au/maps/melbourne-city-campus/building-1
Block 07 Old Melbourne Law Court
north-west corner of Russell and La Trobe streets
In 1842-3 a modest two-storey brick building was erected to house the Supreme Court of Victoria on the corner of Russell and La Trobe streets, Melbourne. A wooden extension was added in 1853 to cope with the sudden increase of cases associated with the gold rush…. In 1884 the Supreme Court moved to more suitable accommodation in the new Law Courts in William Street. The Russell Street buildings were then used for the Court of Petty Sessions. The buildings were demolished in 1910 and the current courthouse was erected in their place.
Source: https://www.rmit.edu.au/maps/melbourne-city-campus/building-20
also you can see the wooden building here> Image
https://www.cbdnews.com.au/old-melbourne-law-court
fossil
When the Supreme Court moved to William Street in 1884, it became the site of the Court of Petty until the Magistrates’ Court was built in 1913. That’s when a stonemason discovered a 19-million-year-old Barnacle fossil while splitting a Batesford limestone building block during construction.
The block with the fossil was incorporated into the new building’s entrance. After RMIT acquired the building in 1997, two University geologists examined the Tertaclitella fossil but were frustrated in their attempts to declare it a new species.
That step required lodging a specimen sample, known as a holotype, in a museum, but the National Trust listing on the building made removing anything illegal.
That obstacle was overcome in 2006, when, surrounded by curious onlookers and television cameras, RMIT was allowed to collect its holotype for handing over to Museum Victoria.
Source: https://www.rmit.edu.au/maps/melbourne-city-campus/building-20
archeology:
The site between Bennetts Lane and Davisons Place is believed to contain
-remnants of bluestone homes including chimneys which could date to the gold rush era.
-artefacts including an Aboriginal tool, jewellery, children’s marbles, and discarded oyster shells which were a source of food from the Yarra River.
SOURCE https://www.cbdnews.com.au/archaeologists-uncover-remnants-of-historic-homes-at-construction-site/
BENNETS LANE ‘Melbourne’s buried blocks’ are a phenomenon first discovered five years ago, when a subterranean neighbourhood the size of five tennis courts was stumbled upon during the development of land around Lonsdale Street’s Wesley Church. A subsequent Heritage Victoria investigation found that in the 1850s, the City of Melbourne, fed up with the frequent flooding of what was known as the ‘Lonsdale Swamp’, ordered that all properties in the vicinity be demolished and buried to raise the street level by two metres.
After the original cottages were demolished and filled in at the order of the council, tenement blocks sprang up on the site in the 1850s and became home to some of the city’s poorest residents, as well as artisans such as a Chinese cabinetmaker, whose possessions have also been unearthed.
By 1913, most of the buildings except one on the site were demolished after being condemned as ‘slums’. They were eventually replaced by warehouses and workshops
Block 08 CUMBERLAND PLACE SCHOOL
18-28 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
-established in 1897 by the Sister’s of St. Joseph to teach the poorest of the poor. It was commonly known as the Catholic Poor School. The school was supported financially by Archbishop Thomas Carr who shared Mary MacKillop’s passion for education for the poor. Children were accepted no matter their religion or their ability to pay fees. The children who attended the school were from diverse backgrounds including Chinese, Indian, Syrian, French Italian and Australian. The school was located on the edge of a precinct in Melbourne known as “Little Lon”.
SOURCE Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre
Block 09
burrows & co 