East Melbourne, Powlett Street 022 [Part 1]

A wooden house of sustantial proportions

On 19 March 1853 Robert Ker, an estate and commission agent, married Virginia Jacomb at St Peter’s, Eastern Hill.  Keeping it very much in the family, just three months later his sister, Anne, married Virginia’s brother, Robert Elwall Jacomb; and on the 20 December 1855, in Manilla, William Ker, Robert’s brother, married Catherine Jacomb, Virginia’s sister. 

The Kers were the children of William Ker, a bookseller of Collins Street, near Elizabeth Street. He died in 1841.  He should not be confused with William Kerr, journalist, who at one stage was editor of John Pascoe Fawkner’s Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser and, after breaking up with him, started his own paper, The Argus.

The family, along with two other siblings, Charles and Margaret, arrived in Melbourne aboard the John Bull on 21 January 1840.

Robert and Virginia were in need of a home and Ker notified the City of Melbourne of his intention to build three houses, all in Powlett Street and all in 1853-54:
15 August 1853 Robert Ker will build for self a wooden house in Powlett Street;
30 November 1853 William Monger will build for Robert Ker a house in Powlett Street, Lot 20, Section 16;
9 August 1854 William Monger will build for Robert Ker a wooden house in Powlett Street. 

Only two houses eventuated. It seems probable that Ker decided that it would be better to have the projects managed by a contractor rather than himself and that the first notice was superseded by the third as only two houses have been identified. Another possibility is that after the first house was built, which may have been a small portable house for instant accommodation, he may have decided to extend the house with a larger brick addition.  The house on the site of 10-14 Powlett Street fits this description. The house on the site of 22 Powlett Street was entirely of wood.

The first tenant of the wooden house was Leslie Montefiore, a bullion broker. About 1860, and only for a year, William Wilkinson Wardell, the noted architect, lived in this house. He is remembered as the architect of St Patrick’s Cathedral and Government House.

About 1860 Mrs Annie Bowler, Robert Ker’s twice widowed mother, moved in next door.  She died in 1875 and we learn from her will that she was, in fact, the owner of the two houses. 
The houses were sold soon after and the real estate advertisements give a good description of them:

Lot 2.  [No 22]
Allotment 19 of Section 16, East Melbourne, adjoining Lot 1, and having a frontage of 82ftt. 6in to Powlett-street by a uniform depth of 132ft., on which is erected a most substantial FAMILY RESIDENCE, built of wood, and lath-and-plastered throughout. with slate roof, containing entrance-hall, 29ft. by 5ft. 8in. ; drawingroom, 15½ft. x 15ft. diningroom, 15½ft. x 13ft., with recess for sideboard. These rooms have folding doors, breakfastroom, 15½ft. x 10½ft, bedrooms, 15½ft x 10½ft, 15ft. x 14½ft, 15½ft, x 10ft., 10ft x 8½ft; dressingroom, 12ft x 7ft. (the best rooms are 14ft high); butler’s pantry and two store-closets, bathroom complete, verandah 7ft. wide, 140ft long ; outbuildings, two-stall stable, coachhouse, hayloft, etc.
Both houses stand nearly 60ft. back from Powlett street, so that there is ample space to build additional rooms in front if required, still leaving plenty of garden ground.
[Weekly Times, 30 Oct 1875, p.18]

The next owner of the wooden house was Arthur Anderson. By profession he was a quantity surveyor, his real interest however was horses.  He hunted and was treasurer of the Melbourne Hunt Club. He enjoyed the races and was a member of the Victoria Amateur Turf Club and the Victoria Racing Club.  He was a regular prize winner in the show ring at agricultural shows. He was also deeply involved with the local church, Holy Trinity, and was a vestry-man for many years. He died in 1934 at the age of 92, having outlived his wife and children.  

By this time the house was known as The Elms, and it too had acquired brick additions, and the number of rooms had leapt from seven to eleven. The house was sold for £3000, and demolished to make way for the current apartments. [see Part 2]