9 August 2018:

A #VictorianMansion that’s so big and severe it looks like a public building ! Which it has been most of its life. Built 1890, called Blackhall, no other info. Better known as a #SalvationArmy home for girls from 1915 to 1978, then it became a campus for #Preshil, Melbourne’s main alternative school, conveniently located in the very upper middle class eastern suburbs. It’s in #SackvilleStreetKew, a street of mansions or rather a street with a few really big houses that is otherwise unremarkable, I mean it’s not on a hilltop or anything. Lots of annoying trees, so here’s an old pic from 1945.

Update : reminds me of ex-mansion now Caulfield Grammar, Malvern (pic 4) and the demolished mansion Glen Eira (pic 5), both a similar date and both by Thomas Watts, so maybe he was the architect. They didn’t mind recycling ideas back then ! Further update : possibly Powell and Whitaker, 1890

• Uncategorized