a million tiny stories: It's just a little bit of history repeating.

I decided to walk a different way home from the tram stop the other day and walked by a building that I have always seen but never closely paid attention to. I saw a little plaque, so I decided to stop and read. It is formerly known as the Wattle House and was built in 1840, making it one of the oldest structures in Melbourne, let alone Australia. This alone intrigued me. But, it's history is even more intriguing.

Russell’s earliest surviving building in Melbourne is St James’ Anglican Old Cathedral, 419-435 King Street, Melbourne (1839-51), which was relocated stone by stone from its original site in King Street. Jackson’s (and indeed Melbourne’s) earliest surviving building on its original site, St Francis’ Roman Catholic Church (1841-45 & 1849) has been in heavy continuous use since the day it opened on 22 May 1842.

Jackson was born in England, the eldest of three brothers who in 1829 when he was 21, all emigrated toHobart in Van Diemen’s Land. In England, Jackson had operated as a builder. In Tasmania he turned his hand to design as well, employing his brothers as carpenters. Three of his buildings survive in Hobart. In 1835 he joined the John Pascoe Fawkner syndicate. Crossing to Melbourne from Launceston in 1835, soon after Fawkner, he arrived within weeks of Russell. He first established a pastoral property near Sunbury. He then returned to the practice of architecture.

In 1840, he opened a part-time office in Little Collins Street, developing a practice responsible for more significant buildings than any other architect prior to the Gold Rush, although many no longer survive. He was designer of Scots’ Church, Collins Street (corner of Russell Street, 1841-42, demolished for the construction of the present Scots’ in 1873); St Patrick’s Church (1850, predecessor of the present Cathedral); St Mary’s, Geelong (1846); St Patrick’s Hall (Victoria’s first Legislative Assembly); the first Melbourne Hospital (1848); Charnwood, St Kilda the house for Octavius Browne (1855); Fairlie, Col. Anderson’s house, South Yarra (1846); ‘Tower House’; St Paul’s Church, Pentridge (1851-53) and Toorak House (1848-50).

With Russell, he entered the 1844 competition for the first Princes’ Bridge. They received second prize, despite the winner, Charles Laing not fulfilling the competition conditions, not the last time for such a dubious occurrence in Melbourne.

As a designer without architectural training, Russell’s designs are provincial, unaffected, and even naive. His details are very difficult to source, generally Gothic and Picturesque. The ornament of St Francis recalls the decorated halls of the Commissioners’ Gothic, which Jackson may well have experienced as a builder in London. He also painted one of the most important relics of early Melbourne- a panorama of the town on 30 July 1841, which is now in the La Trobe Collection of the State Library of Victoria.

Jackson had moved to Acland Street, St Kilda in 1845. He is listed in the 1847 Port Phillip Directory as ‘Samuel Jackson Architect, St Kilda’. For Prof. Miles Lewis, this is sufficient to date Wattle House as ‘c1847’. With F.G. Dalgety and H.F. Gurner (26), Jackson had purchased land at the second Crown Landsale in St Kilda in 1846. Eventually, he owned several hectares between Fitzroy, Acland and Grey Streets.

Jackson’s design for Wattle House is particularly Romantic, in a Picturesque Gothic or Cottage Orneémanner. But Lewis, Australia’s principal expert on prefabrication has confirmed that Wattle House is not, as is often claimed, prefabricated. Its design was probably derived by Russell, from architectural Pattern Books. Further research is needed to determine which.

It is two-storied with steeply pitched gabled roofs, with Tudor details and most decorative fretwork barges and finials, timbering and small-paned casement windows. It is the oldest surviving house in St Kilda.

A fascinating technical detail is that the roof of Wattle House is partially clad with Morewood & Rogers iron roof tiles. Today, these are very rare in Victoria, but Berkley Hall’s stables (26) have them and formerly, so did the stables of Fenagh Cottage (25). Galvanised iron tiles reached Victoria as a patent method of roofing from 1850 and were used for about twenty years. They are about 900 x 575 mm and screw-fixed over half-round timber rolls, as an overlocking seal between tiles. Morewood and Rogers tiles were the earliest and most common, after those of their predecessors, Morewood & Co. The tiles were imported from a factory in leafy Gospel Oak, North London. (http://www.skhs.org.au/skhsbuildings/23.htm).

In 1863 it was leased off and turned into an all girls school. In 1878 it was auctioned off, and has a few times after as well, and has been home to a brothel and now stands as a hostel (although, I think it was closed this year..., no proof on that though).

It is a beautiful building that stands ominously over the shabby area that is St Kilda, reminiscing of the grandeur, beauty and prestige that St Kilda used to stand for.

A great article talking about exactly this... http://www.stkildaessence.com.au/09-essays/meyer-eidelson.html

You never know what history is, literally, right around the corner from you.