Hamilton History Centre Inc in Hamilton, Victoria | Monument

Hamilton History Centre Inc

Locality: Hamilton, Victoria

Phone: +61 3 5572 4933

Address: 43 Gray Street 3300 Hamilton, VIC, Australia

Website: https://hamiltonhistorycentre.org.au/

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25.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT MILLERS The Hamilton Spectator reported in the November 5th 1887 edition, ‘New Drapery Firm The premises at the corner of Gray and Thomson-streets, have just been subjected to a general overhaul, and are freshly decorated both within and without. For some weeks past the establishment has been closed, and what is known as Jacoby’s corner presented a gloomy appearance... The premises have been secured by Messrs. T. Murray and Co., a new firm ...Continue reading

24.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT JOSEPH LEVI RICHARDS BAKER ‘Mr J.L.R. Baker, who died at his residence, 32 Collins St, early on Sunday morning last was a highly regarded member of Hamilton’s legal profession for 55 years,’ the Hamilton Spectator of 28th November 1950 reported. Natural ability coupled with determination and perseverance was instrumental to what J.L.R. Baker achieved in his lifetime....Continue reading

23.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT HAMILTON POST OFFICE One of the first buildings in what was to become Hamilton was a hotel on the south side of the Grange Burn. It was called the Grange Inn and was near where the Digby Road bridge is today. The pub opened in the middle of 1843 and the publican was gazetted to act as the postmaster of the district in September 1844. Some five or so years later the post office was transferred to David Beath’s store, which was in the same a...rea as the Grange Inn, but higher up on the hill. This settlement was called the Grange. When the area was officially surveyed in 1851, the future township of Hamilton was laid out on the northern side of the creek and not in the area of the Grange. The Hamilton town lots sold well and the new settlement soon outstripped the old. In 1856 or 7, David Beath transferred his store and post office to a building adjacent to the Victoria Hotel in Gray Street. It wasn’t until 1861 that the Hamilton Post Office had an official building of its own. Small and made of timber, it housed both post office and the new telegraph office. It was located in Gray Street, (in the vicinity of the present day Grand Central Hotel), and was soon outgrown. Only two years later it was obvious a new building was needed. Therefore, in February 1864 a new Post and Telegraph Office was opened on the site of our present day PO. While the new building was impressive, being made of bluestone, two-storey and with a clock, it was poorly constructed. It was also outgrown after a few years and by the mid 1870s was just about falling to pieces. So once again a new post office was needed. The old bluestone building was sold to local merchant Sigismund Jacoby. Before it was pulled down the bluestone was carefully numbered and after dismantling, taken to Dryden Street where it was reassembled. It became Jacoby’s home, which he called St Ronans, and it remains one of Hamilton’s most prestigious houses. The foundation stone for the new Hamilton Post Office was laid in September 1876 and the building completed in 1878. Built in the Italianate style it was a combined post and telegraph office, land office and sub-treasury. In 1890 a clock tower was added to the building but it wasn’t until 1892 that the clock was installed. Whilst there has been some renovation to the Post Office building over the years, both internally and externally, outwardly, at least, the Hamilton Post Office looks much the same as it did in 1878. Check out the Hamilton History Centre website at https://hamiltonhistorycentre.org.au/

22.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT WALTER HOUSE CORNER When Donald Morison wrote his memories of Hamilton in 1909, he could remember all the way back to 1854 when he arrived in Hamilton. In that era he noted that, ‘The houses that were in Hamilton at that time were few’. Along with a handful of other homes, he wrote that there was ‘a slab hut facing Brown Street occupied by Mr and Mrs Hart, where Union Bank now stands’. This site, part of allotment 11 of section 4, is on the...Continue reading

22.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT TED AND RAE DEMPSTER Named the ‘Father of the Art Gallery and Mother of HIRL’ by the Hamilton Spectator, Ted and Rae Dempster gave a lifetime of service to Hamilton....Continue reading

20.01.2022 The Hamilton History Centre has reopened to the public and resumed our regular opening times. We ask all visitors to adhere to the COVID19 restrictions when they visit the Centre.

13.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIIGHT CLARKE STREET WW1 MEMORIAL AVENUE The idea for a memorial avenue of trees in Clarke Street came from James Lodge, who had four sons serving in the war. In the winter of 1918 he spoke about wanting to stand beside his sons on their return home as they carved their names into trees planted in their honour. Unfortunately he never got to do this as he died on the 30th of July 1918 of pneumonia. In response the Clarke Street community banded toge...Continue reading

12.01.2022 TEMPORARY CLOSURE For the safety of our volunteers during the COVID-19 event it has been decided to temporarily close the Hamilton History Centre to the public. The History Centre will be closed until at least April 20th.... If you have an enquiry or need to contact us please email the History Centre at [email protected] or via our website at https://hamiltonhistorycentre.org.au/ or leave a note in the door letterbox at 43 Gray Street and we will try to answer promptly.

11.01.2022 The Hamilton History Centre will reopen, subject to COVID-19 protocols, on the 9th of June 2020. Please do not attend the Centre if you feel any flu-like symptoms.

10.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT WILLIAM’S BUILDING CORNER A large building containing three shops was built on the corner of Gray and Thompson Streets in 1864 for Jacob Tallerman, (present day addresses are 95 to 99 Gray Street). Constructed of Mount Sturgeon stone, the structure was in the colonial style and had a decorative parapet with finials. The Hamilton Spectator wrote in the 21 December edition, ‘... the enterprise shewn [sic] by Mr J. Tallerman deserves special me...ntion. He has now very nearly completed the first portion of the contemplated magnificent pile of buildings, and two of the shops are already opened by him. It is the intention of Mr Tallerman to have several shops each devoted to a particular business’. Tallerman sold clothing, hosiery, boots, groceries, wine, spirits and tobacco from December 1864 to 1866. In 1867 Henry Horwitz and Abraham Marks owned the building and ran a store selling groceries, crockery, fabric, ironmongery and furniture. In 1870, after Marks retired, Horwitz partnered with Sigismund Jacoby, [of St Ronans see previous Spotlight article on the Hamilton Post Office]. Horwitz and Jacoby operated for more than a decade in this building. The corner became known as ‘Jacoby’s corner’ and continued to be until at least 1887. After ‘Horwitz and Jacoby’ ceased trading, a series of drapers and grocers occupied the three shops in the fifteen of so years leading up to the turn of the 20th century, including A. Miller and Co, [a future Spotlight article will give more information on Millers]. After 1900 the shops housed tailors, mercers, hairdressers, bootmakers, grocers, stationers, a bicycle store and a music store. From 1915 it also housed a Williams the Shoeman shoe shop and it was this business that played a big part in the next phase of this corner block. Williams the Shoeman Pty Ltd owned the whole of the old stone building from at least the 1928-1929 ratings period. It was demolished in the early to mid 1930s and Hamilton builder Reginald Williams built the modernist style building that is present today. The new building was finished by December 1935. Designed by Melbourne architectural firm Seabrook and Fildes, it used innovative products of the time in its construction. It was named the Williams Building. In a homage to the Williams the Shoeman business it was to house, a carved brick relief of a shoemaker decorates the wall facing Gray Street. Williams the Shoeman operated from this building until 1986. From the opening of the Williams Building, and for more than sixty years, the downstairs corner shop was occupied by newsagents. The newsagents were Nicholson, Charles, McCasker, Brooke, Twiss and lastly Beattie. Since 2006 Victoria’s Sights and Delights giftware shop has occupied this shop. To find out what else the Hamilton History Centre can offer you, please visit our website at https://hamiltonhistorycentre.org.au/

10.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT GREED’S CARRIAGE FACTORY When Charles and Sarah Greed and their ten children decided to leave Somerset, England and go to Australia, it was a decision that would have a major impact on the fledgling town of Hamilton. It was January 1857 when they and their eight youngest children arrived in Victoria, (the two oldest children made the journey separately). Their seventh child, Abraham, was ten years old at that time. The Greed family settled in Port...Continue reading

09.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT JOHN SKINNER’S HAMILTON IN THE 1850s The social history of Hamilton in the early years, before we had the Hamilton Spectator, is scant. What we mainly have available are the memoirs of squatters and the more well to do families. This leaves a large gap in the history of 1850s Hamilton from the point-of-view of the average workers the smaller cogs in the machinery that built Hamilton. Amongst the resources at the Hamilton History Centre, pasted i...Continue reading

07.01.2022 HAMILTON HISTORY SPOTLIGHT J.R. SLORACH Hamilton businessman John Robert Slorach was known fondly as JR. Born in Stawell in 1891, from an early age he had a natural talent for mechanical work. After trying farming for a few years at his father’s instigation, JR left Stawell at about age 20. He went to Melbourne to pursue his dream of working in the automotive industry. While work in this line was scarce he eventually found employment at a Triumph motorcycle dealership. He s...Continue reading

06.01.2022 COVID-19 MEASURES UPDATE APPOINTMENTS ONLY We are pleased to advise the Hamilton History Centre is open. COVID-19 protection measures such as sanitization and social distancing are in place and we thank you for your patience during this time. In view of the current lockdown restrictions, access to the Centre will be subject to the following limitations:... You will be admitted to the Centre only if: You are a current member of the Centre, or You are accompanied by a current member of the Centre, or You have made and confirmed a prior appointment by email or telephone. So that we can adhere to the COVID-19 safety guidelines, all visitors will be required to provide contact details. This may or may not also entail sighting your driver’s license or some other identification. For your safety, and the safety of our visitors and staff during this time, we encourage you to reach out to us online or via telephone for research queries. If you are feeling unwell, please stay home and stay safe. While you recuperate, feel free to use the contact form on the website to ask questions, or shop online. The webpage is hamiltonhistorycentre.org.au

05.01.2022 The weekly Hamilton History Spotlight articles are written and researched by HHC member and Vice-President Marlene Greiner unless attributed otherwise.

03.01.2022 The Hamilton History Spotlight articles were written in response to the lock-down of the History Centre due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I thought I should give the people checking in with the HHC via our Facebook page something to read during the isolation period. Some history of Hamilton was the obvious choice, and the Spotlight articles were born from that. Now that the Hamilton History Centre has re-opened, the Spotlight articles will no longer published weekly. (There ma...y be more articles in the future.) Thank you for all the 'likes' and comments over the past ten weeks. I've certainly learned some more about Hamilton's history and I hope you did too! Marlene Greiner