| Also known as | Elslie House | Source: source: the Age 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Address | known today as 513-521, the consolidated site once hosted a row of five Victorian terrace dwellings before the current building | Source: source: 1895 MMBW map |
| Constructed | (1st) 14/9/1883, (2nd) after 1965 | |
| Style | Late twentieth century: 1960 – 2000 | |
| Architect | ||
| Builder | (1st) Mr. J. McNaughton, 102 Lonsdale Street East. (2nd) unknown. |
Timelapse Building Images
1895
original image source: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/375042
source: State Library of Victoria
Land Details
- current map
- 1895 MMBW map
- Compiled Crown Record Plan showing Mr. Samuel Cohen and Mr. B [Alexander] Marks were the first crown land purchasers of this site.
- 1858 Crown Land Sales report
Building Details
Notice of intent to build.
Street: Victoria Street, corner Victoria & Munster Terrace.
Number: 491
Date 14/9/1883
Owner: Boyd [Mr. Alexander]
Builder: Mr. J. McNaughton, 102 Lonsdale Street East
Fee: £ 1.15.0
Type: Two storey house, [with its own private back yard garden]
Other significant building works created by John McNaughton can be found below.
| Owner | Suburb | Building Type | Builder | Build Date | Reg # |
| McNaughton, John – Lonsdale St | Lonsdale St. Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1853 04 25 | 640 |
| McNaughton, John – Lonsdale St | Little Bourke St. Melbourne | Factories | McNaughton, John | 1853 06 1 | 889 |
| McNaughton, John – Lonsdale St | Lonsdale St. Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1856 08 29 | 607 |
| McNaughton, John – Lonsdale St west | Little Bourke St. Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1858 05 10 | 389 |
| McNaughton, John – Lonsdale St west | Lonsdale St. Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1859 12 9 | 796 |
| McNaughton, John – Melbourne | Lonsdale near Rose Alley, Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1867 02 6 | 1873 |
| McNaughton, John | Lonsdale St. Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1868 02 21 | 2459 |
| McNaughton, John | Franklin St. West Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John | 1871 10 27 | 4611 |
| McNaughton, John | Lonsdale St. Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John – 148 Lonsdale St west | 1877 04 4 | 7145 |
| Matear, Charles | Rathdowne St. Carlton | Houses | McNaughton, J W – 102 Lonsdale St East | 1881 11 11 | 8989 |
| Guest, John | Spencer St. West Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, J W – 102 Lonsdale St E | 1882 05 25 | 9218 |
| Johnson, J | Ireland St. West Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, John – 102 Lonsdale St East | 1883 05 8 | 287 |
| Boyd, – | 521 Victoria St. [West] Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, J – 102 Lonsdale St East | 1883 09 14 | 491 |
| Vanselaw, L | Ireland St. West Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, J – 102 Lonsdale St East | 1884 08 6 | 1011 |
| Watson, T | Ireland St. West Melbourne | Houses | McNaughton, J – 102 Lonsdale St east | 1884 08 6 | 1012 |
| McNaughton, J | Drummond St. Carlton | Houses | McNaughton, J – 102 Lonsdale St | 1885 05 9 | 1501 |
| Millar, John | Russell St. Melbourne | Factories; Shops | McNaughton & McMurtrie – 209 Lonsdale St | 1891 01 7 | 4794 |
| Dinwoodie, Mrs – Trustees | Collins St. Melbourne | Office Buildings | McNaughton & McMurtrie – 209 Lonsdale St | 1895 08 7 | 6433 |
| Lilley, Alick | Queen St. Melbourne | Shops | McNaughton & McMurtrie – 209 Lonsdale St | 1896 03 3 | 6594 |
source: Burchett Index
Subsequent Building Alterations
In 2016 Melbourne City Council received a development application for a seven-storey block containing 26 flats, seeking a reduction in the prescribed number of onsite car parking. None of the proposed flats have their own private back yard garden space to relax and unwind in after a hard day’s work.
Prior to the land in the late 1960s being consolidated as a large factory site we see today, the first dwellings on 513 to 521 Victoria Street hosted five well-built Victorian-era residential family dwellings that all had their own private back yard gardens.
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/building-and-development/property-information/planning-building-registers/Pages/town-planning-permits-register-search-results.aspx?permit=TP-2016-426
image source: commercialrealestate.com.au
What would Alexander and Sarah Jane Boyd or their descendants think, or any of the other families who once lived in this house after the Boyd’s, of the 1960s demolition of this once highly treasured family home.
If society in Melbourne continues to allow the wholesale destruction of our early Victoria-era architectural heritage dwellings, only to be replaced by mid- and high-rise blocks of poorly designed and low quality, dense flats, withing the existing inner suburban areas, Melbourne’s once proud and highly sought-after low rise historic amenity will be lost forever.
The face of Melbourne will become no different to every other dense and overpopulated, cheap quality built, city around the world.
Current legislation for the protection of Melbourne’s inner city heritage dwellings is clearly not strong enough. Our valuable heritage can’t protect itself; it is up to everyone in the local community who has a voice and wish to be heard, to do everything possible to ensure heritage homes are not obliterated from our local inner Melbourne streetscapes forever.
Australia is a land rich country, there are more than enough vacant lots of land scattered all around the outskirts of Melbourne with very low density, where additional housing can and ought to be built.
Take action now and let those who have been elected to govern that we need stronger inner Melbourne heritage dwelling protection, no more densification, no more loss of private back yard garden spaces and no more reduction in existing residential car parking spaces and no new buildings that tower over existing single and double storey dwellings and into our private back yards.
Architectural Features
No Entries Found
Heritage Significance and Listings
| Heritage Listings and Explanatory Notes |
|---|
The highly sought after Victorian era heritage dwellings with their own private back yard gardens that existed on this site were demolished sometime after 1965 and replaced by the current industrial building. |
Owners
| From | To | Owner | More Info | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| to date | Private | source: Hatcher Index | ||
| 1896 | 1900 | Hugh Boyd | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1883 | 1894 | Alexander Boyd | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1858 | 1883 | Mr. Samuel Cohen & Mr. B. [Alexander] Marks | source: Hatcher Index | |
| abt 40 thousand years earlier | 1835 | Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Victoria | source: Hatcher Index |
Residents
| From | To | Resident | More Info | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| to date | Private | source Hatcher Index | ||
| 1970 | 1974 | C.W. Norris Co. P/L office | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1955 | 1965 | Herbert Ginivan (driver) and Gladys Alice Ginivan | Sands & McDougall directory, transcribed by Stephen Hatcher 2024 | |
| 1945 | 1950 | Hector Duncan McDonald and Catherine Jane McDonald | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1937 | 1940 | Michael D. (railway worker) and Margaret Canty | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1935 | 1935 | Mrs. Amy Smith | Sands & McDougall directory, transcribed by Stephen Hatcher 2025 | |
| 1930 | 1930 | Charles (labourer) and Honor Gallagher | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1925 | 1925 | Patrick Dillon (cook) | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1920 | 1920 | Mrs. Ada Davies (home duties) and Decima Davies (machinist) | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1914 | 1915 | Mrs. Agnes Farrell (home duties) | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1905 | 1913 | John (engin-driver) and Elizabeth Farrell | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1894 | 1900 | Hugh Boyd (engineer) | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1883 | 1896 | Mrs. Sarah Jane Boyd and family | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1883 | 1894 | Alexander, Sarah Jane Boyd and family | source: Hatcher Index | |
| 1883 | 1883 | Alexander Boyd (vacant land) | source: Hatcher Index |
Social History
Elslie House, 521 Victoria Street, ancestral home of the Boyd Family for 17 years.
Hugh Boyd was born in Melbourne in 1874, the son of Railway Guard, Alexander McKeller Boyd and his wife Sarah Jane, nee Burrows. He was named after his paternal grandfather from Scotland.
His father Alexander arrived in the colony in September 1870 on a ship named the Colonial Empire. It departed England via Plymouth. His age at that time was listed as 23 years and his occupation was recorded as a Railway Guard.
One year later in July 1871, sixteen-year-old Sarah Jane Burrows had emigrated from England via the ship named Western Empire leaving from Plymouth. It landed three months later in Melbourne in September.
Alexander met and married Sarah Jane in Melbourne in 1873. Their four children: Hugh, born 1874, Allen, born in 1875, Elsie in 1882 and Alice in 1883.
Hugh’s maternal grandfather George Burrows was an Engine driver for the railway.
The Boyd family moved into their new family home around 1883/84, it was known as ‘Elslie House’, 521 Victoria Street, West Melbourne. They had previously lived at 97 Roden Street, West Melbourne. Their Roden Street family home was demolished and replaced by a factory which has since been replaced by six storey block of ninety two flats after 2007.
At the time of his father, Alexander’s death in 1894, Hugh, was twenty-two years of age and had become an Engineer. He lived at the same address along with his mother and three siblings. Hugh was listed as Alexander’s sole executor in his father’s last will.
In 1901, the twenty-seven-year-old Hugh Boyd met and later married eighteen-year-old Alice Beatrice Grey. She was the youngest daughter of Robert and Catherine Grey, of Albert Park.
The following year, Hugh’s sister Elsie Boyd married George Alexander Robinson in 1902.
Photo: Hugh Boyd and Alice Beatrice Grey.
source: researched by Stephen Hatcher in 2021.
The Age 1900.
BOYD — In loving remembrance of our dear father, Alexander McKellar Boyd, who died 24th December 1894, at “Elslie House, Victoria-street, West Melbourne; also, our dear mother, who died on 5th January, 1896.
Gone, but not forgotten. -Inserted by their loving children, Hugh, Allan, Elsie and Alice Boyd.
source: The Age 1900
Context and Streetscape
| Precinct |
|---|
This property resides within the municipality of the City of Melbourne. We respectfully acknowledge it is on the traditional land of the Kulin Nation. |
| Zoning |
|---|
The controls listed below affect this property: This information must be verified with the relevant planning or heritage authority. |
| Streetscape |
|---|
This section of Victoria Street was once predominantly filled with one and two story Victorian single and double story terrace dwellings that had their own private back yard gardens. On the northern corner of Victoria and Stawell just over the road from the 521 Victoria Street was the Bayview Hotel. There was also a hotel six doors east on the corner of Victoria and Dryburgh called the Hunt Club Hotel. Towards the west were flour mills that employed many hundreds of people from the local community. After the first and second world wars came the onslaught of factories that moved from the CBD into the residential suburbs like North and West Melbourne. In 1929, architect Sydney Smith, Ogg and Serpell designed the local Mulcahy’s hotel on the corner of Victoria and Munster Terrace. The Pub closed and was converted into twenty one flats in 2010. |
Other Information
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