27 July 2023
Fenagh Cottage in Burnett Street St Kilda is a prefabricated timber house from c1857, a surprising survivor. I’m pretty sure it used to be obscured by a lush garden, but it’s quite visible now. It was built either by the lot owner William Cleary, or the man who leased it in 1857, George Watson, who bought it the next year, and the lots either side. Watson ran mail coaches, bred race horses, and started the Melbourne Hunt Club, but stayed in the modest house on the St Kilda hill until he died in 1906, and his family stayed into the 1920s. The verandah and the bay windows are later additions, and I think everything past the front four rooms too, all likely done in the 19th century (real estate plan and interior pics from 2005), but the 1857 stables are still there. The plan is from 1897, from the St Kilda Historical Society entry.
24 August 2024
Turns out it was owned by Kate Langbroek ! But she’s moving on and it’s up for sale. From the new real estate pics seems it hasn’t changed much at all since 2004.
Storey of Melbourne 