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Michaelis Hallenstein & Co building. 439-445 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 105709

Level of description:

Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)

Type of materials:

Graphic materialsTextual material

Part of:

Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)

Access restrictions:

UnrestrictedOpen access.

Use restrictions:

UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.

General notes:

RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________Style: Neo-BaroquePeriod: Inter-WarDATE: 1924;ASSOCIATIONS: Michaelis Hallenstein & Co Pty Ltd. tanners;DESIGNER: Tompkins, HW & FB;BUILDER: Shillabeer, FE & Sons.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?The four storey warehouse at 439-445 Lonsdale Street, was constructed by Shillabeer & Sons for Michaelis Hallenstein & Co to the design of the Tompkins Brothers in 1923-1924 at an estimated or contract cost of £33,000.Started at Footscray in 1864 by Isaac Hallenstein Michaelis Hallenstein & Co grew to operate tanneries in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Dunedin: the business handled leather, grindery, saddlery, canvas, sports goods and other lines as created by their subsidiary factories. An office in London also operated as a buying house for all members of the group. The business was reformed as Michaelis Bayley Ltd. It was among the largest tannery firms in Australia during the Victorian and Edwardian-eras. The firm won awards in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Calcutta. It also pioneered the Australian glue industry and processed gelatine. Their vast Footscray tannery has been demolished.The building is of note for its unusual façade, as an abstracted example of the Edwardian Baroque mode which proliferated in Melbourne prior to WWI, largely from designs by the Tomkins Brothers such as the Commercial Travellers Association buildings in Flinders Street. The building façade adopts a vertical tripartite Palazzo arrangement: the heavy ground floor is rusticated and springs from a fine rock face bluestone plinth with an ox-bow awning above the principal entry. The intermediate floors are divided into vertical window strips (metal-framed) by abstracted composite order columns, with spandrels containing understated decorative panels. The composition is surmounted by a prominent dentillated classical cornice and balustraded parapet above. The entry has original lacquered joinery (inner and outer door suites), a grand white marble stair and polished marble wall or dado linings.At the rear is a more austere red brick parapeted warehouse wing, abutting a lane, which once connected with an earlier company building at the rear (since demolished). The building is in good and near original condition externally with some minor changes only to openings at ground level.The Tompkins Brothers were renowned as commercial architects, being the Capital City Zone's most prolific in the Edwardian-era and inter-war period, with Victorian Heritage Register sites such as The Commercial Travellers Association Building, Dimmeys of Richmond, , Myer Emporium Bourke St, and The Herald and Weekly Times Building constructed in stages between 1921 and 1928, also the former Oriental Building, 277-279 Flinders Lane, and Centreway Building & Arcade Buildings 1912-13 among others.How is it significant?The Michaelis Hallenstein & Co building is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?Statement of SignificanceMichaelis Hallenstein & Co building at 439-445 Lonsdale Street is of aesthetic significance as a good and distinctive example of the Neo-Baroque style within the Capital City Zone showing the transition in its application by the eminent Tompkins Brothers from the ornate revival manner to this Modernistic form. The building shows a later classical revival phase of the extensive work of the Tompkins brothers, the best known commercial designers in Melbourne of the Edwardian-era and inter-war periods.Historically, for the building's close association with the nationally prominent tannery firm of Michaelis Hallenstein & Co..BRYCE RAWORTH PTY LTD, 2002 REVIEW OF HERITAGE OVERLAY LISTINGS IN THE CBDHistory and DescriptionThe four storey building at 439-445 Lonsdale Street, was constructed in1923 at a cost of £33,000 [BPA].The building is of note for its unusual facade, a heavily abstracted example of the Edwardian baroque mode which had proliferated in Melbourne prior to WWI [Butler]. The building facade adopts a vertical tripartite arrangement. The heavy ground floor is rusticated and springs from a bluestone plinth with an ox-bow awning above the principal entry. The intermediate floors are divided into bays by abstracted composite order columns and spandrels containing understated decorative panels. The composition is surmounted by a prominent classical cornice and balustraded parapet. The building is in good original condition.Statement of SignificanceThe office building at 439-445 Lonsdale Street is of aesthetic significance at a local level as a good example of the uncommon neo baroque mode within Melbourne's CBD.Footnotes:MCC Building Permit application (BPA) 5595, 20/9/23, Erection of new warehouse.Butler, 1985. CAD Conservation Study, 439-445 Lt Lonsdale Street..City of Melbourne i-Heritage:Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984 Building Identification Form (BIF): Notable features include an elaborate / high standard design of cement rendered surfaces. Alterations / Recommendations: Air units added ( inappropriate - remove or reinstate sympathetic alternative).MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES102/60 via web site:(http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/collections/pdfs/michaelis.pdf)On 21 Jul 1864 Isaac Hallenstein acquired the Footscray Tannery from the Cleghorn family and two years later, on 17 Nov 1866 he entered into partnership with his uncle Moritz Michaelis under the style of Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co. The partnership re-formed as a limited liability company registered 16 Jun 1892 with all “partners and sub-partners taking up the whole of the share capital”. With the exception of the Sydney & Dunedin businesses (which remained with the old firm) the new company took over the undertaking of the old partnership from 1 Jul 1891. But, as the minutes record, the business was virtually a private company and steps were begun in Mar 1897 to convert it to a proprietary company. This happened in about May 1897. The company operated tanneries in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth & Dunedin and the business handled leather, grindery, saddlery, canvas, sports goods and other lines with other subsidiary factories making finished goods in those descriptions. An office in London also operated as a buying house for all members of the group. The business was reformed as Michaelis Bayley Ltd.1923 re purchase of Lonsdale St site. 1924 22 August- image looking from roof of new building.Australian Postal History & Social Philately website(http://www.auspostalhistory.com):Michaelis Hallenstein & Co.CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONSBuilding Permit Application: 1923, 5595 see VPRO: VPRS 11200/P0001/626 - not applicable- see also Admin file VPRS 11201/P0001/70.LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEX:Related Records1875 Crouch & Wilson, architects,46 Elizabeth Street.Tenders required. Additions to warehouse, Lonsdale St., occupied by Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co.Argus 21.12.1875 p 31896William SalwayTender accepted for two additional storeys to store for Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co., Melbourne.Australasian Builder and Contractor's News 27.12.1890 p 4991890William SalwayTender accepted for adding two storeys to warehouse in Lonsdale St., for Messrs. Michaelis Hallenstein & Co., Melbourne.Building Engineering and Mining Journal 27.12.1890 supplement 3.AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHYJ. S. Levi, 'Michaelis, Sir Archie Reuben Louis (1889 - 1975)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, Melbourne University Press, 2000, pp 365-366.`MICHAELIS, Sir ARCHIE REUBEN LOUIS (1889-1975), businessman, politician and Jewish leader, was born on 19 December 1889 at St Kilda, Melbourne, eldest child of Australian-born parents Frederick David Michaelis, merchant, and his wife Esther Zillah, née Phillips. Moritz Michaelis was his grandfather. His aunt Alice Michaelis was a founder (1912) and president (1944-46) of the Lyceum Club, Melbourne. The close-knit family gathered at Linden, the Michaelis mansion in Acland Street, St Kilda, on Friday nights to observe traditional ceremonies and rituals in preparation for the Sabbath. Archie attended Wesley College, Prahran, and Cumloden School, East St Kilda; in 1903 his parents took him to England and enrolled him at Harrow School.Returning to Melbourne in 1908, he entered the family tannery business, Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co. Pty Ltd. In 1912 he was sent to England to gain experience in the firm's London office. He served (from 1914) in the Honourable Artillery Company and went with his battery to the Middle East. After being commissioned (1916) in the Royal Field Artillery Special Reserve, he was posted to Ireland and Greece. He trained for the Royal Flying Corps in Egypt in 1917, but contracted malaria and influenza and was repatriated in 1919. Archie's brother and three first-cousins had died or been killed in World War I, and the family required his active involvement in the business. On 14 January 1920 at Tusculum, Potts Point, Sydney, he married his cousin Claire Esther Hart (d.1973).In the late 1920s Michaelis began to take an interest in politics. He became associated with the Australian Legion and later the Young Nationalist Organisation, and valued his lifelong friendship with (Sir) Robert Menzies. In 1932 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the United Australia Party, wresting what had been the safe seat of St Kilda from the Australian Labor Party. During the 1935 election campaign anti-Semitic pamphlets were distributed in St Kilda. In parliament, Michaelis was the foremost advocate of legislation (1939) that made third-party motorcar insurance compulsory; towards the end of World War II he worked to prevent the transfer of vital powers from the States to the Commonwealth. In 1945, with (Sir) Thomas Maltby and three other dissident Liberals, he helped Labor to defeat the Dunstan-Hollway government. From 2 October to 21 November he was minister without portfolio in Ian Macfarlan's 'stop-gap' government. He rejoined the Liberal Party in December 1946. Elected Speaker in 1950, Michaelis served in that role until his retirement in 1952. He was knighted that year.Chairman (1948-65) of the family firm and of its parent company, Associated Leathers Ltd, Michaelis was a generous supporter of charities. As treasurer of the Emergency Relief Committee, he had helped Jewish victims of the 1929 riots in Palestine. He was a member (1940-70), president (1945) and chairman (1947-51) of the Patriotic Funds Council of Victoria, and a board-member (1935-72) and vice-president of the Alfred Hospital. He also chaired the Victorian branch of the Australian Jewish Historical Society and served on the board of the Melbourne Jewish Philanthropic Society.Like his father and grandfather before him, Michaelis was president and a trustee of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation. He was a friend and disciple of its rabbi, Jacob Danglow, whose wife was his aunt. Michaelis became a defender of the Anglo-Jewish establishment within the Australian Jewish community. As founding president (1939-40) and spokesman of the Victorian Jewish Advisory Board, he resisted attempts to secularize the Jewish community's leadership. Opposed to Zionism, he publicly defended Sir Isaac Isaacs's anti-Zionist letters and articles. When some member of the Jewish community condemned Isaacs and his supporters, Michaelis declared that he would not be 'dragooned into silence'. In 1947-48 he helped to fund the short-lived anti-Zionist journal, Australian Jewish Outlook. Like Danglow, he later made his peace with the independent state of Israel.In retirement, Sir Archie maintained a lively interest in community affairs and wrote frequent letters to the press. He relinquished his membership of the Victoria and Peninsula golf clubs and his social games of tennis, but continued to enjoy a weekly game of poker, crossword puzzles and reading (he was vice-president of the Kipling Society, London). In 1966 he published a brief memoir, Before I Forget. Survived by his three daughters, he died on 22 April 1975 at South Yarra and was buried in St Kilda cemetery.Select BibliographyThe Michaelis, Hallenstein Story 1864-1964 (Syd, 1964); P. Aimer, Politics, Power and Persuasion (Syd, 1974); W. D. Rubinstein, The Jews in Australia, vol 2 (Melb, 1991); Parliamentary Debates (Victoria), 23 Apr 1975, p 5299; Australian Jewish Historical Society, Journal, vol 8, part 1, 1975; Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Feb 1935, 3, 10 Oct 1945, 11 Dec 1946; Age (Melbourne), 23 Apr 1975; Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne), 23 Apr 1975; family papers (privately held). More on the resources'J. Ann Hone, 'Michaelis, Moritz (1820 - 1902)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp 245-2456`MICHAELIS, MORITZ (1820-1902), businessman, was born on 8 November 1820 at Lügde, near Bad Pyrmont, Hanover, son of Reuben Michaelis and his wife Sara. His parents, though financially struggling, sent him to a private school and in 1835 to Holzminden to study medicine. After a brilliant year the money ran out and he had to begin a four-year apprenticeship with a Brakel firm. He then worked for a Cologne linen merchant and was soon manager. In 1843 he joined a Manchester firm, Sampson & Leppoc, and won rapid promotion. He visited Germany in 1848 and on his return considered Australia as the remedy for his ill health which Manchester only aggravated. The offer of a higher salary prevailed but when the gold rush began the firm decided to send Michaelis and Adolphus Boyd to Victoria. On a farewell visit to Germany Michaelis met Rahel Gotthelf, daughter of his sister's husband. They married on 14 April 1853 and in August arrived at Port Phillip in the Falcon.Surrounded by gold mania Michaelis set himself the limited ambition of being 'a well to-do man' in ten years and with Boyd began business in Richmond. Within a year Michaelis had to return to England for more goods, of which he was to sell £25,000 worth at one auction. In 1855 Michaelis and Boyd broke with Sampson & Leppoc, moved to Collins Street and with a capital of £15,000 drew up a five-year partnership agreement. Boyd returned to England to manage the fortnightly shipment of goods and, except for £10,000 lost through a dishonest employee, the firm prospered; in 1860 the agreement was renewed. In 1864 Michaelis visited Europe but on his return faced ruin. The end of the American civil war lowered the price of cotton goods and a shipment of elastic-sided boots proved faulty. In May 1866 the partners' creditors accepted a composition of 14s. in the £ and in March 1867 the partnership was dissolved. Michaelis had already joined his nephew, Isaac Hallenstein, who in 1864 had bought a tannery at Footscray.Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co. grew rapidly; in 1873 Isaac established a London branch and in Melbourne 780 hides were turned out a week; in 1876 the Sydney branch, Farleigh, Nettheim & Co., started and in 1879 Michaelis, Hallenstein & Farquhar was established in New Zealand. The firm won awards in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Calcutta. It also pioneered the Australian glue industry and processed gelatine. To Michaelis, the success was due to his management and Isaac's hard work. In 1883 he was able to pay his creditors. In 1884 he took his family to Europe for a two-year visit marred for him by rheumatism. The crash of the 1890s was not entirely unexpected by Michaelis and the firm kept down its overdraft and survived. Michaelis maintained that business would recover 'when once the mercantile world has got clear of its speculative and weakened members, when I doubt not we shall reap the reward of my caution'.Michaelis had wide interests and though never seeking public office vigorously supported the liberal reform movement and for years was acting consul for Prussia. In 1860 he had acted as special auditor for the National Bank. Fascinated by mechanical inventions he financed several and was also involved in salvage operations. He loved music and plays and frequented Melbourne's early theatre. A Jew by birth, he did not continue to practise the orthodoxy of his childhood and often visited the Unitarian Chapel where the minister was 'a very clever preacher'. Michaelis was treasurer of the Melbourne and East Melbourne Hebrew congregation, founded the St Kilda congregation in 1871 and gave large sums to both. Though a committee member of the Melbourne Hebrew School he sent his sons to Wesley College. He was a member of the Sabbath Observance and Jewish Aid Society Committees and a founder of the Australian Israelite which he later boycotted. He supported many charities, gave £500 to the Melbourne Hospital and with his sons gave £1000 to the Alfred Hospital in memory of his wife who died in 1901. His greatest interest was his family whose unity he maintained by personal and written contact and an implacable will. Only sons and sons-in-law of partners became shareholders but Michaelis advised them to acquire financial independence. He published Chapters from the Story of my Life (Melbourne, 1899).In old age Michaelis spent increasing time at Romawi, the 4000-acre (1600 ha) property on Lake Victoria, Gippsland, bought in 1889. There, after an unsuccessful attempt to produce wattle bark, he bred cattle and sheep and enjoyed visits from his family. In 1901 his health declined and his rheumatism worsened. He died at Linden, St Kilda, on 26 November 1902, survived by seven daughters and four sons. He was widely mourned as a man of great honour 'who would do good by stealth and blush to find it fame'.Select BibliographyL. M. Goldman, The Jews in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century (Melb, 1954); The Michaelis, Hallenstein Story 1864-1964 (Syd, 1964); Table Talk, 11 Dec 1902; Australian Leather Journal, 15 Dec 1902, 16 Jan, 15 Feb 1956; Michaelis, Hallenstein Pty Ltd records (Australian National University Archives). More on the resources'.DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1924 not listed1930, 1935 (441-445) Michaelis Hallenstein & Co P/L tanners(1904 382-384c -Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co, ProprietaryLimited, leather merchants and tanners1900 439-441 382-384 Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co, ProprietaryLimited, leather merchants and tanners Tankards Temperance Hotel…)

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Central Activities District Conservation Study 1985Conservation studiesOfficesNeo-Baroque styleInterwar period

Places:

Melbourne (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1250654