Charity Organisation Society building also Morris House, 114-122 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Charity Organisation Society building also Morris House, 114-122 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 103626
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Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
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Graphic materialsTextual material
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2021-2:__________________________________________________DATE: 1924-5;ASSOCIATIONS: Charity Organisation Society; Edward E Morris; Ann Fraser BonDESIGNER: Godfrey & Spowers;BUILDER: Slater & Cleary..CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWhttps://tinyurl.com/fhf5cf6rWhat is significant?Former Morris House at 114-122 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, built in 1924 for the the Charity Organisation Society (Victoria), is significant.Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):• the building’s original external form, materials and detailing;• the building’s high level of integrity to its original design;• pattern and size of original fenestration;• tall narrow steel framed windows with mullions and transoms; and• decorative elements including the pilasters, moulded and recessed panels between pilasters, parapet with moulded string course and entrance porch.More recent alterations and addition, including those undertaken at ground level, first-floor balcony and a roof deck with glazed balustrade, are not significant.How it is significant?Former Morris House at 114-122 Exhibition Street, Melbourne is of local historical and representative significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?Morris House at 114-122 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, built in 1924, is historically significant for its association with the Charity Organisation Society (Victoria), an influential organisation established in Melbourne in 1887 as an offshoot of its British antecedent. The organisation was enduring, later becoming the Citizens Welfare Society. The Charity Organisation Society pioneered the co-ordination of charitable, religious and educational institutions and private benefactors who made significant contributions to social welfare. Its importance was in helping to pioneer 'case-work' and lay the foundations for the profession of social work and play a leading role in the distribution of unemployment relief in the 1930s. 114-122 Exhibition Street is significant as the offices of the Charity Organisation Society from 1924 to the early 1950s. During this time it also attracted other like organisations to occupy tenancies within the building. The Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (VSPCC) was one of the long-term tenants in Morris House, moving into the building in 1924. As a local branch of an international non-denominational organisation, VSPCC was established in 1894 to investigate and report child abuse and neglect in Victoria. VSPCC operated from the building into the mid-1950s, employing paid officers to perform its investigatory and prosecution work.The building, from its foundation in 1924 as the office of the Charity Organisation Society and the Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, has historical significance on account of its long association with child welfare and the ‘child rescue’ movement from the mid-1920s, which would have almost certainly included the welfare of Aboriginal children. One of the founding members of the COS was Ann Fraser Bon, who was a leading advocate of Aboriginal welfare in Victoria. (Criterion A)114-122 Exhibition Street is historically significant for its ownership and use by the Australian-American Association from 1957 to 1973, specifically as clubrooms for female members. The Association was founded by Sir Keith Murdoch in 1941 in order to strengthen cultural ties between Australia and America. It served as one of a few private clubs for women in the central city. (Criterion A)114-122 Exhibition Street is significant as an example of the interwar classical revival style that was popular for government buildings, banks and other commercial premises built during the decades after World War One. The style is notable for its conservative and restrained design that reinterpreted nineteenth century classicism at the same time that it incorporated new construction technology. In 114-122 Exhibition Street this is evident in the scale and form, rhythm of the street façades with steel-framed decorative windows, stucco pilasters that extend over the two storeys with moulded, recessed panels, window spandrels and a moulded string course beneath the parapet. (Criterion D)Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites F. ST;.CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONSMelbourne Building Application Indexhttps://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/60672/images/44777_349573-008201921May ₤80 erecting a film store1934 ₤40 alts and additions.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWhttps://tinyurl.com/fhf5cf6rRECOMMENDATIONSRecommended for inclusion in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Melbourne PlanningScheme as an Individual Heritage Place.Recommended for referral to Aboriginal Victoria for the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register.Extent of overlay: Refer to mapSUMMARYThe former Morris House at 114-122 Exhibition Street was built as offices for the Charity Organisation Society in 1924. One of the long-term occupants of the building was the Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty. Until c1957 the building provided accommodation for a number of charitable, welfare and benevolent organisations. Morris House was later purchased and occupied by Australian American Association between 1957 and 1973. The building is a representative example of interwarclassicism, addressing the corner of Exhibition and Little Collins Streets..SITE HISTORYThe subject site is located on Crown Allotments 19, Block 9, City of Melbourne (Fels, Lavelle and Mider 1993). Figure 1 shows the subject site in 1895, developed with a single-storey building on the corner of Exhibition and Little Collins streets, and a three-storey building at 122 Exhibition Street (Mahlstedt Map section 1, no 9, 1888; MMBW Detail Plan no 1013, 1895). Former buildings, known separately as 118, 120 and 122 Exhibition Street, continued to exist on the subject site into the 1920s. An application was made for the erection of a film store at 114-122 Exhibition Street in May 1921. The Sydney-based Exhibitors Alliance Films Limited had occupied a branch office at 122 Exhibition Street by 1922 until 1924, when the company liquidated (MBAI 3323; Sunday Times 3 September 1922:9; Daily Telegraph 16 May 1924:1)..Figure 1. The subject land in 1895, outlined in red. (Source: MMBW Detail Plan no 1013, 1895).The current building at 114-122 Exhibition Street was constructed in 1924 at a cost of £9200 (MBAI 6045). Built for the Charity Organisation Society, the foundation stone was laid by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne on 16 July 1924 (Argus 17 July 1924: 7). Construction was noted as to be nearing completion ‘at the end of the year’ in 1924 (Age 28 August 1924: 10). The building was named Morris House (Figure 2) after Edward E Morris, professor of modern languages and literature at the University of Melbourne, and founder of the Victorian Charity Organisation Society (Argus 12 December 1924:12; S&Mc 1925; Mahlsted Map Section 1, no 2, 1925)..Figure 2. Mahlsted plans of the site in 1925 (left) and 1948 (right) showing the site labelled as 'Morris House'. The building appears to have had few changes in the period between. (Source: Mahlsted Map Section 1, no 2, 1925; Mahlsted Map Section 1, no 2, 1945)..In December 1924, the Charity Organisation Society (Victoria) moved into the three-storey brick building at 114-122 Exhibition Street (Figure 3, Figure 4). The Governor of Victoria, the Earl of Stradbroke, formally opened the Charity Organisation Society’s rooms in December 1924 (Herald 10 December 1924: 7).The Charity Organisation Society (COS) of Melbourne was established in 1887 to help co-ordinate Melbourne's charitable organisations and to foster amongst the poor the ideal of 'self-help'. The COS played a key role in the development of the social work profession in Victoria and increasingly became involved in child welfare issues. In the years following the 1890s economic depression, it expanded its casework and social work services to foster care placements of children (Commonwealth of Australia 2017). One of the founding members of the COS was Ann Fraser Bon, a leading advocate for the welfare of Aboriginal people in Victoria (Gillison 1979).The COS revived in the 1920s, helping to pioneer 'case-work' and lay the foundations for the profession of social work. Its major function, however, was still assessing whether people who approached Melbourne's charities were 'truly' deserving (Peel 2008). In order to overcome what it saw as 'indiscriminate giving', the COS offered detailed investigations of each case and a centralised record system to ensure that only 'deserving types' received aid (Peel 2008).In calling for subscribers in 1927, COS office holders wrote thatDuring the society's last financial year nearly 4,000 cases of need in the metropolitan area were handled by a trained and sympathetic staff. During the same period the society, through its trust and relief funds, expended more than £3,200 in direct relief, and a further sum of £2,500 in various forms of service to the poor and to the community. The work of many other charitable institutions is strengthened by the co-operation of the Charity Organisation Society, and there is a definite prospect of a further increase in this cooperative activity (Argus 3 November 1927:14).During the 1930s depression, the COS took a leading role in the distribution of unemployment relief.Moving into Morris House in 1924, the Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (VSPCC) was one of the long-term tenants in Morris House, where it was able to access the Central Register maintained by the COS (Scott and Swain 2002:61). The institutionalisation of neglected children, known as ‘child rescue’ procedures, had been voluntarily set up by charitable missions and also by the colonial/state governments of Australia throughout the nineteenth century, during which time the concept of foster care was developed as the dominant form of alternative care. By the late 1890s, most states had enacted legislation to protect children. The work of ‘child rescue’ continued into the twentieth century and led to the nationwide ‘child rescue movement’, which resulted in the removal of thousands of Aboriginal children from their parents to be raised in foster families or institutions from 1920 to 1970 (Haring, Sorin and Caltabiano 2019). As a local branch of an international non-denominational organisation, VSPCC was established in 1894 to investigate and report child abuse and neglect in Victoria. VSPCC operated from Morris House into the mid-1950s, employing paid officers to perform its investigatory and prosecution work (Weekly Times 7 November 1951:40; Commonwealth of Australia 2017). The organisation today operates as the Children's Protection Society (Commonwealth of Australia 2017).From the 1920s, the building also provided accommodation for a number of other organisations, including the Victorian Provident Society (S&Mc 1926); disabled soldiers' furniture factory (Herald 8 May 1925:13); the headquarters of the Order of the Star of the East (Herald 21 November 1925:15); the Association of the Ladies' Benevolent Societies (Age 4 March 1927:16); and the council of the Baby Health Centres' Association (Age 1 October 1929:9). A Citizens Advice Bureau opened in Morris House in 1951 (Age 3 March 1951:5).Minnie Everett was another tenant of Morris House from 1927 until c1936, when she moved to Kurrajong House at 175 Collins Street. Everett conducted the Minnie Everett School of Stage Dancing, including singing, dancing, voice production, deportment and stage technique classes from studios at 114-122 Exhibition Street. John Maslen writes in the Australian Dictionary of Biography that:Minnie Rebecca Everett (1874-1956), dancer and producer, was born on 28 June 1874 at Beaufort, Victoria… After the family moved to Melbourne, Minnie trained under Emilia Pasta, a ballet dancer from Italy. From the age of 13 Everett took casual engagements at the Alexandra Theatre, the Opera House and the Theatre Royal…Having joined J C Williamson in 1888, Everett became one of the Royal Ballerinas, a permanent ballet of trained dancers who appeared with his Royal Comic Opera Company… As ballet mistress for thirty years, she created and produced dances for most of J C Williamson Ltd's productions. From the early twentieth century Everett won renown for her work not only as a ballet mistress but as a producer of comic and grand opera… For many years Everett ran her own theatrical schools in Melbourne and Sydney where she taught singing, dancing, voice production, deportment and stage technique… Although she retired in 1940, Everett continued to take a keen interest in amateur theatrics and in 1955 was coaxed into producing The Mikado for the Victorian Council of Adult Education (Maslen 1996).A change of name to the Citizens' Welfare Service (CWS) in 1946 signalled a shift in emphasis as the organisation moved towards employing professionally trained social workers who used psychologicalinsights in their interviewing and casework (Peel 2008). In 1947, the CWS moved to new premises in Drummond Street, Carlton, but continued to maintain an office at 120 Exhibition Street through to the early 1950s (S&Mc 1950).Prior to the sale of the building in 1957, in 1955, the tenants at Morris House were the Citizens’ Welfare Service of Victoria; Victorian Provident Aid Society; Victorian Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children; Children’s Welfare Association of Victoria; Victorian Institute of Hospital Almoners; Alfred F Bridges, masseur; Medical Eye Service of Victoria; and Ophthalmic Association (S&Mc 1955).In 1957, the site was purchased by the Australian-American Association for use by their female members as a clubhouse (Age 21 August 1957:9). The purchase price at the time was £36,500, and the Association aimed to form a club for their female members where they could meet and establish headquarters for their hospitality committee (Age 21 August 1957: 9). The Association also established a library for their members on the premises (Age 21 August 1957: 9). It was noted at the time that the Association had purchased the building from the Citizens’ Welfare Service, which transferred its operations to a new location at the time of the sale (Age 21 August 1957: 9). The president of the women’s group at the time was Maie Casey, later Baroness Casey, whose husband Lord Casey had become president of the association in 1946 (Age 13 February 1958: 1; News 9 May 1946: 3).The Australian-American Association had been founded by Sir Keith Murdoch by 1941 (Age 6 October 1952: 2; AWM 2019). The association was concerned with building and strengthening relationships between Australia and America, and was described as ‘an active force in linking the destinies of the two countries’ (Age 6 October 1952: 2).The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies came to Melbourne from Canberra especially for the official opening of the site as the Australian-American Centre, which was also attended by the American Ambassador to Australia (Age 13 February 1958: 1). The opening ceremony included a speech by Robert Menzies, where he spoke to members of the friendship and growing ties between America and Australia (Age 13 February 1958: 3). Luncheons with guest speakers appeared to be continued by the group at the site (Age 4 November 1972: 2).The building was put up for lease in 1973, and again in 1977, when it was advertised as an ‘outstanding city corner’ (Age 25 August 1973: 56; 28 April 1977:23). The building was altered to accommodate a restaurant in 1974 at a cost of $10,000 (MBAI 45120). By 1987, the premises were occupied by Altmann & Cherny, gem dealers, cutters and jewellers (Age 24 March: 24). The site was converted into a bar and restaurant in 2003 (CoMMaps)..REFERENCESAdvertiser, as cited.Age, as cited.Argus, as cited.Australian War Memorial (AWM) 2019, Keith Arthur Murdoch, https:/ /www.awm.gov.au, accessed online 5 August 2019.City of Melbourne Interactive Maps (CoMMaps) 2019, http:/ /map s.melbourne.vic.gov.au/, accessed 5 August 2019.Commonwealth of Australia 2017, Find and Connect, https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000322, accessed 10 May 2018.Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, as cited.Daily Telegraph, as cited.Darian-Smith, Kate 2008, ‘Americans’ in eMelbourne, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au, accessed 13 April 2018.Fels, M, Lavelle S, and Mider D 1993, ‘Archaeological Management Plan’, prepared for the City of Melbourne.Gillison, Joan 1979, ‘Bon, Ann Fraser (1838–1936)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, originally published 1966, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography, accessed online 26 February 2020.Halla, K J c1960-69, ‘Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Vic., State Library Victoria (SLV) Halla collection of negatives, Views of East Melbourne, Fitzroy, Melbourne & North Melbourne, accessed online 2 May 2018.Halla, K J c1960-69, ‘Exhibition Street East, Melbourne, Vic.', Halla collection of negatives. Views of East Melbourne, Fitzroy, Melbourne & North Melbourne, State Library Victoria (SLV), accessed online 2 May 2018.Haring, U, Sorin, R and Caltabiano N. J 2019, ‘Reflecting on childhood and child agency in history’ in Palgrave Communications vol 5, no 52, via http://nature.com, accessed only 24 February 2020.Herald, as cited.Mahlstedt and Gee 1888, Standard plans of the city of Melbourne, Mahlstedt and Gee, Melbourne.Mahlstedt, G 1910, Index to City of Melbourne detail fire survey, Mahlstedt, Melbourne.Mahlstedt's Pty Ltd 1925, City of Melbourne detail fire survey. Section 1, Mahlstedt Pty Ltd, Melbourne.Mahlstedt's Pty Ltd 1948 City of Melbourne detail fire survey. Section 1, Mahlstedt Pty Ltd, Melbourne.Maslen, John 1996, ‘Everett, Minnie Rebecca (1874–1956)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, originally published 1966, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography, accessed online 26 February 2020.Melbourne Building Application Index (MBAI), retrieved from Ancestry.com 2015, Victoria, Australia, Selected Trial Brief and Correspondence Registers and Other Images, 1837-1993 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com.au, accessed online March-April 2018.Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) Detail Plans, as cited, State Library Victoria.News, as cited.Peel, Mark 2008, 'Charity Organisation Society' in eMelbourne, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au,Sands & McDougall, Melbourne and Suburban Directories (S&Mc), as cited.Scott, D and Swain, S 2002, Confronting cruelty: historical perspectives on child abuse, Melbourne University Press, Carlton.University of Melbourne Library (UOM) 2019, Organisation: Charity Organisation Society, https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au, accessed online 5 August 2019.
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1208027
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 103626 | 1 JPEG : 829 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |