By Peter Woods
The first sales of land in the Port Philip District were held in Sydney when, on 13th February 1839 Thomas Walker purchased Portion 70 of 28 acres in the parish of Jika Jika for approximately £200. Shortly thereafter he sold the land to Robert Saunders Webb, the first Collector of Customs in the Port Philip District for £560 who proceeded to divide it into 61 sales of small lots.
In December 1849 Webb sold the block of land described as Lots 13 and 14 of Section 3 on the north-east corner of King William and Fitzroy Streets The purchaser was Jane Briggs described on the title as ‘widow’. Jane Briggs died on 10th May 1871 and in her Will, left her estate to her 8 children including the land described above which contained “…two weatherboard and one stone cottage thereon erected…” The site had a value of £500.
Jane Briggs Estate was managed by executors before it was sold to William Bestwick in 1871 for £600. It was sold again in 1874 to Patrick Donohoe, (gentleman) again for £600. After some 10 years Donohoe constructed the houses that remain today. Rates were first charged on two houses, numbers 77 and 79, and a year later on the remaining four.
Also in December 1849, Robert Saunders Webb sold Lot 12 immediately at the rear of Lot 13, and fronting Fitzroy Street to Isaac Sewell. The land was sold a further six times until in 1899 it was purchased by Patrick Donohoe who combined the three lots to become a single block. As construction of the six brick terrace houses was completed between 1885 and 1889, the addition of Lot 12 added 11 metres to the depth of the total site in 1899.
Search of the land in the Land Titles Office show that there were many Mortgages taken over this block of land, particularly Portion 12, between 1852 and 1879.
In November 1858 tenders were called for the “forming and metalling” of several streets including King William Street. Until that date the roadway was not formed and there were no footpaths, and no residences in the street had water supply at the houses.
The property was sold a further 11 times until in 1957 the land was divided so that each of the 6 houses became individual properties. Each of the properties has been sold several times since that time. Each of the houses is named, with British or Irish connotations. Hope, Dove, Anchor, Mountjoy, Fitzroy and Grattan. While all the houses have undergone renovations, the frontages are believed to have remained unchanged from the time of construction.
One of the tenants who occupied Number 77 from 1931 to 1959 was Dante (David) Triaca whose father, Camillo from Lucca in Italy was, as a boy in a church choir at Viarreggio where the choir master was the famous Giacomo Puccini, writer of operas. David ran the popular Café Latin in Exhibition Street and later in Swanson Street for many years. He was also the director of plays performed in Italian by the Dante Alighieri Society.