Federation Edwardian domestic architecture

Before the terrible financial crash of 1891, Australian homes were most likely to be built in classical, Victorian taste. The houses were symmetrical, built from locally quarried stone, had gently slop­ing roofs and classical proportions in the handling of doors and windows. If the family made money after the gold rush ended, the home would have two storeys; otherwise it would be a single storey cott­age. Inside was one main passage from front door to the back kitchen, with com­part­mentalised rooms off that passage.

Victorian cottage, 
symmetrical, bullnosed corrugated iron veranda

The Victorian home was made thoroughly Australian by the addition of a tiled veranda on two of the four sides, with wrought iron poles and lacework on the veranda. Slate was chosen for the main roof, and galvanised corrugated iron covered the veranda.

After WW1 ended, hundreds of thousands of ex-servicemen wanted to marry and settle their children on free-standing suburban blocks of land. They wanted a small home that a] they could afford and b] did not need staff to help maintain the inside or out. No space was wasted on a passage, but vegetable plots and chicken coops in the garden were considered important. The Californian Bungalow: Australia's Favourite Interwar Home, was perfectly adapted for Australian suburbs.

But what happened architecturally in Australian cities and towns in between, from 1895-1914?

This period was not flush with gold rush wealth, but it was a time of: Federation excitement (before and after January 1901), the dev­el­opment of national identity and of maturity in the brand new century. Railways had extended from the centre of each state capital city to the most distant suburbs, making it sensible for families to build away from the bustle and dirt of the inner cities. As I discussed in an early post, the passion for planned Garden Cities and suburbs, so beloved in London and the Home Counties, was perfectly suited for Australian families.


Very large Federation home in South Yarra, 
with steep roof lines, low tower and conical top, half timbered gables, red bricks.

Edwardian domestic architecture from Britain emerged in Australia during the 1890s. Gently sloping roofs, bluestone building material, wrought iron pillars and lacework all disappeared. Symmetry was con­sidered outdated. Instead what emerged was Federation-Edwardian-Queen Anne taste that popularised red bricks; low towers with conical tops; steep, complex and non-symmetrical roofs; multiple gables with half timber decoration in them; timber posts and fancy timber brackets; and prominent and narrow brick chimneys with terracotta pots on top.

Sydney Daily Photo blog mentioned extra defining features in a post called Series: Local Domestic Architecture Part 3: Federation: tuck-pointed brick work, leadlight and stained or glass windows, and red Marseilles-style terracotta tiles. The colours changed from pale Victorian options to Brunswick green and deep Indian red. Images of the rising sun or of Australian flora and fauna represented a new pride in national identity.
Federation home in Ivanhoe. 
Note Brunswick green colour, terracotta roof tiles, timber decorative elements. dormer windows matching the gables

Inside, Federation homes were somewhat more open planned than earlier homes had been. They often had built-in furniture, bay windows with casement window openings, veranda space for outdoor living, simple use of mater­ials and timber panelling.

Glyn, 
Federation living room, timber panelling, open planned rooms

Arts and Crafts homes were also built during the 1895-1914 era but they were not quite as popular as Queen Anne. What differentiated the Arts and Crafts homes was a concern for comfort and for honest expression of function.

Entire suburbs, newly developed after 1900, emerged with Federation homes and public buildings. They were often centred around the newly built railway station, Federation pub and Federation fire station. Federation Details blog in Federation Queen Anne style and Sydney Eye blog in Federation detailing are visually delightful sites. They suggest we examine the development of Federation homes in Burwood, Haberfield, Rozelle and Strathfield. Now I wonder why all the blogs I that located and cited have been Sydney-based, not Melbourne-based.

French architecture or Algerian?

Charles Célestin Jonnart became the French governor in Algeria in 1903. For him, the authority of French colonisation needed to be reflected in the architecture of Algier’s most important buildings, places with which the French administrators, business people and Pieds Noirs ex-pats could identify.

Architects J Voinot and M Tondoire were asked to design a public postal and telephonic institution that would serve this part of the French empire. Normally I suppose a post office would not thrill the hearts of citizens and tourists, but this building really was the centre of turn-of-the-century modernity. And to show you how central to the French empire this building was to be, you could have once found a Joan of Arc statue near by (although it was later moved to France).

Grand Post Office, Algiers

I cannot find anything about Voinot and Tondoire, but I can see what remains of their taste. The massive building, monumental and glist­ening white from the outside, took eight years to complete. It has a large cupola, two imitation minarets, the principal frontage which included three arches, a gallery on high, broad marble staircase, stalactites and engraved stucco. The ceiling of the prin­cipal room was and remains an architectural jewel. Even the main mailbox, used since people starting mailing letters here 100 years ago, retains its lovely floral mosaics.

Mailbox with mosaic surrounds

Was this French architecture or Algerian? What are we to make of the original inscription: “God is victorious”? This neo-Moorish taste was definitely intended to appeal to the Muslim community, with the added hope of bringing the two communities closer together at the turn of the century. Presumably Charles Jonnart had no inkling of the bitterness Algerians would increasingly feel about French control of their country.

In the interwar period, néo-Moorish designs became somewhat obsolete. But the Grand Post Office remained the dominant monument in Algiers' landscape, a symbol of early French colonial control. The most useful blog I found was Algeria Travel, for example the post on Algiers.

Origins of Guide Dogs for the Blind

I am besotted with labradors and thought, briefly, of putting my beloved labrador puppy into a training school for guide dogs. But Rudy was too playful and too distractible to take a blind person across our kitchen, let alone a busy street. In any case, his main goals in life were to locate pieces of dried liver and to run on the beach.

Puppies waiting for training to be guide dogs. 
Training cannot start until they are 12 months old.

That led me to consider the history of training dogs for guiding blind people. I easily found 73 blogs and newspaper articles, but they all used the same words and they mostly started their history of guide dogs in the 1920s. Alas I don’t read German and have to rely on secondary sources, so my contribution will largely be the story as it was found in World War One records and images.

Invisible Paris blog wrote in 15-20 Vision that King Louis IX created the original Quinze-Vingts hospital in 1260. The King certainly wanted to look after the blind people of Paris but he was mainly motivated by the many soldiers who were returning from the Crusades and suffering from enemy-inflicted blindness. There are some suggestions that dogs were trained to work with the blind at this Paris hospital, at least when the hospital moved to a better site in 1780.

Vienna in 1819 was the critical city, as soon as Johann Wilhelm Klein became the founder of the Austria Institute for the Blind. The International Guide Dog Federation noted that Klein wrote about training guide dogs in his book on educating blind people, but it is not clear whether his ideas were carried out in practice or not. Still, a Swiss citizen called Jakob Birrer wrote in 1847 about his experiences of being guided over a period of five years by a trained dog. He may have been referring to Klein’s centre.

Dogs and handlers in the German army, World War 1

The historical details from the C19th become more firm when we learn of a smart breed of dogs, as Tiffany Proctor described. That breed was founded in 1899 by Capt Max von Stephanitz. He had been viewing a dog show where he saw what he believed to be the ideal sheep dog. The dog was then purchased and propagated by Stephanitz who, in time, became the founding father of the breed called German Shepherd dogs. The German Shepherd or Alsatian breed grew and grew, and because of its intelligence and obedience, went on to star in seeing-eye work.

The labrador dog has been recognised as a great retriever and gun dog for hundreds of years. But I cannot find when the breed’s loyalty and willingness to learn made it absolutely ideal for seeing-eye work.

Most writers suggest that the biggest push in the 20th century was when dogs were used to lead blinded German soldiers during World War One. Formal, systematic training of guide dogs was started by Dr. Gerhard Stalling who opened the world's first guide dog school for the blind at Oldenburg in August 1916 and the second in Potsdam. The school flourished and new branches opened all over Germany, turning out some 600 dogs a year. Stalling's training became the role model for training guide dogs across the rest of the world.

World War I trenches, men and dogs

Olive Drab blog in History of War Dogs agreed that dogs were invaluable to the German army in WW1. The Germans reported use of over 30,000 dogs as messenger and ambulance dogs, but I cannot find how many dogs were used/trained specifically to assist the blind. Photos of soldiers in trenches from firstworldwar.com show the dogs actively involved, but their exact role is unclear.

Gassed 1918, 
by John Singer Sargent

A painting by John Singer Sargent, now in the Imperial War Museum London, showed rows of soldiers who had been blinded by mustard gas. This is exactly the sort of situation that the trained German army dogs specialised in.

Bauhaus in Britain; Chermayeff and Bexhill-On-Sea

I was very interested in Bauhaus architectural students who moved to Britain, as soon as the Bauhaus was closed down (in 1933). Serge Ivan Chermayeff (1900–96) was exactly the same age and nationality as many of the Bauhaus architectural students, but he in fact moved from Grozny in Russia directly to London. Thus we know that he did not spend any years studying at The Bauhaus in Germany.

However we do know that in 1931, Chermayeff and two other English architects (Wells Coates and Jack Pritchard)  made a journey together through Germany, and included Bauhaus in Dessau in their itinerary. They spent time talking with English undergraduates who were studying there.

In the 1920s, professional organisations of young architects were al­ready emerging in Berlin and other German cities. Zehnerring/Ring of Ten was an org­anis­at­ion of Berlin architects set up in 1923 to prom­ote the Bauhaus notion of modernism architecture. Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953) was one of these German architects who was thrilled to join Zehnerring, but within a few years he fled Germany while getting out was still a possibility.

Chermayeff went into private architectural practice is 1930 and a couple of years later, he welcomed Erich Mendelsohn into the practice. Of these two Jewish architects safely working in Britain, Mendel­sohn was older and more famous, but Chermayeff spoke English better and had citizenship. Their combined goal was to design significant archit­ect­ural works in the British modernist movement, a la Bauhaus.

Looking to the beach from the Bexhill-On-Sea pavilion

Bexhill, a small beach resort town between Eastbourne and Hastings, already had a high-class entertainment venue: the Kursaal in De La Warr Parade. The mayor of Bexhill in 1932, who happened to be 9th Earl De La Warr, suggested the town needed a more modern, more invit­ing pavilion. What he wanted was an enclosed structure or winter garden, behind the existing colonnade. The town largely supported this project, as long as the new building maintained the existing character of the town.

Bexhill Borough Council set up an architectural competition in 1933 and prepared a brief that indicated that a modern building was required. 230 architectural designs were submitted, exhibited and assessed, and the winning entry was declared to be that submitted by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff.

Bexhill social life in summer evenings

Building work began in Jan 1935, using perhaps the first welded steel frame building in Britain. The aesthetics taught at The Bauhaus were well suited to the Bexhill Pavilion, focusing on long, low concrete surfaces, industrial designs, with expansive metal-framed windows and concrete-steel materials. The glass-encircled staircase towers above the headland on which it stands.

If the streamline extended verandas, glass tower and deckchairs reminded the viewer of a ship, it was not coincidental. Firstly Bexhill On Sea was a beach resort town. Secondly 1930s modernist architecture, especially Deco, was besotted with ships (as well as trains and fast cars), as shown by Art Deco Buildings.

When the money ran out, the plan to redevelop the Colonnade, a swimming pool and modernist statue was abandoned. Nonetheless the completed project was opened in Dec 1935, in the presence of royalty.

In the 1930s the modern style of the building was probably something of a shock to the good (staid?) burghers of Bexhill. And there was also some resentment over the cost of the project. However in the end it became much loved. graveney marsh blog has an enticing image of the sea, taken from inside the pavilion.

I hadn't discovered why this coastal resort fell out of love with its treasure, then The Knowledge Emporium blog showed how the pavilion was damaged when a nearby hotel was bombed during the war. Afterwards, in the tough postwar era, the pavilion was simply neglected.

By the 1980s, the De La Warr Pavilion was granted a Grade I listed Building status and plans were formulated to restore the building. In 2005, after an extensive programme of restoration and regeneration, the De La Warr Pavilion reopened as a large, cont­emporary arts centre. 70 years after the building was designed by Chermayeff and Mendelsohn, the De La Warr Pavilion is the most famous spot in Bexhill. And much to my pleasure, it is one of the best early examples of the Bauhaus style of architectural modernism in Britain.

What do bloggers think of the pavilion now? 60 going on 16 blog examined the architecture, loved it, then headed for the cafe, opting for tea, cake and sea views out on the first floor balcony. Despite not spending much time with the art as expected, it was an excellent experience.

Bexhill Pavilion and art centre, in 2005

For scholars of The Bauhaus, it is interesting to know that Laszlo Moholy Nagy's successor at the head of the Ins­t­itute of Design in Chicago was the very same Serge Chermayeff who had moved to the USA during WW2. Chermayeff, the man who had never studied at the Bauhaus, remained true to the Institute’s orig­in­al Bauhaus goals. Some of materials related to the De La Warr Pavilion were archived in the Serge Chermayeff Papers in Columbia University New York.

Every adult citizen's vote must be counted

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance - Compulsory voting information wrote that democratic governments consider voting in elections a right of citizenship. Many nations consider that participation at elections is more than a mere right; it is also a citizen's civic responsibility. In some countries, where voting is considered a duty, voting at elections has been made compulsory and has been regulated in the national constitutions and electoral laws. Many of these countries impose sanctions on voters who do not fulfil their civic duty. But the idea of "forcing" people is almost irrelevant. They vote because that is what a good citizen does - he looks after the children, runs a home, keeps a job, pays taxes, protests against bad laws, supports charities, uses public transport wherever possible, and votes!

I would add another very important consideration. A government who is elected with­out hearing from 100% of the adult population has no legitimacy. Of course 100% may not be literally possible since some people are inevitably in gaol, in hospital or are so infirmed that they cannot write. But 100% of the adult population should be the goal of any democratic nation’s electoral strategy.

If mobile voting booths have to go out to old peoples’ homes and move from bed to bed, those mobile booths must be funded from the tax base and equipped before the next election. Postal voting will be necessary for all absentee voters. Voting has to be on weekends so no worker suffers a loss of wages during his absence from work. If citizens are working in Antarctica or New Guinea, election officers need to process those remotely located citizens in a timely fashion.

Rural voting, New Zealand, 1897

There seem to be 35 nations that have some sort of universal voting laws:
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Congo
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Fiji
France (Senate elections only)
Gabon
Greece
Guatemala
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Italy
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Mexico
Nauru
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Singapore
Switzerland (some cantons)
Turkey
Uruguay
Thailand
Venezuela

Austria, Netherlands, Soviet Union and Spain did have universal voting at some stage, but have since changed their legislation.

FairVote blog gives the arguments cogently and at length in Maximizing Participation: what the US can learn from compulsory voting. Empress Nasi Goreng blog discussed how serious Australians were their rights and responsibilities in On the Australian system of compulsory voting.

Gold fever and stage coaches, California and Victoria

Freeman Cobb (1830-1878) joined Adams & Co., the American express agents, in 1849. He worked with the coaching line which had established itself during the Californian gold rush, starting only one year earlier. Adams and Co’s rival, Wells Fargo & Company's Atlantic and Pacific Express, also moved gold, transported passengers and carried freight between the cities of New York and San Francisco, and around California. Guards rode shotgun on the stage coaches, to protect the gold and the passengers.

Wells Fargo, driver, armed guards and passengers,
California

Just as gold fever was starting to die down in California, it was about to start in central Victoria. Coach services in Australia had been irregular and unreliab­le. So it was not surprising that Freeman Cobb wanted to establish a branch of Adams & Co. in Melbourne. In fact several American coach drivers had arrived in Australia, rep­resenting the interests of either Adams & Co. or Wells Fargo. Neither of these two American companies did carry traffic to the Victorian gold diggings, in the end. So the very entrepreneurial Freemen Cobb joined three of the new arrivals to create a new partnership, Cobb & Co. They were John Peck, James Swanton and John Lamber.

By the end of 1854 Victoria had a somewhat better system of roads, with toll gates on all high­ways leading to the goldfields, and booking offices in all the bigger towns. Cobb and Co still struggled a bit during the first five years of service, but the company boomed when it was bought in 1858 by another recently arrived Amer­ican, James Ruth­erford. Rutherford had been the manager of one particular Cobb and Co line before he and the new partners re-organised and extended the Victorian services, and secured a monopoly on the mail contracts.

The coach drivers pro­vided mail and passen­ger serv­ic­es to the out­back, facing a tough life of rough roads, difficult weather condit­ions and even bushrangers. Soon specially sprung coaches that could handle Australia's very rough conditions were imported from America.

Every 25 ks the horses were replaced at a changing station, to get passengers to their destinat­ions faster and safer. Chan­ging stat­ions were important for the horses, but for the passengers as well since they provided an opport­un­ity for food and rest. A few examples will do. The American Hotel in rural Creswick was described as a 2-storey timber structure. During the gold rush period, the hotel operated as a Cobb and Co station, gaining prominence as one of the leading est­ablishments in the colony. And providing drinks to thirsty travel­lers! Some changing stations were not in pubs. Just west of rural Beaufort, for example, there was a free standing Cobb & Co changing station, built in 1869. In Barraba near Tamworth NSW, Cobb & Co stage coaches had a clearly marked changing station in the town’s post office.

Barraba post office
and Cobb and Co station, NSW

I have no idea why Cobb and Co headquarters were moved from Victoria to Bathurst in New South Wales in 1862. Workshops were built at Hay and Bourke in NSW, and Castlemaine in Victoria, and the service was expanded to include Queensland. The first Cobb & Co coach in Qld ran from Brisbane to Ipswich in Jan 1866. Holties House blog gave photographic proof that in the dry sandy regions of Queensland, the innovative Cobb & Co. company sometimes used camels instead of horses to move the mail and passengers.

A clue comes in Sam Everingham's book Wild Ride: The Rise and Fall of Cobb & Co, published by Penguin in 2007. It says while Freeman Cobb established the company in 1853 to cater for travellers between Melbourne and the Victorian goldfields, it was Frank Whitney and James Rutherford who turned it into the most extensive coach network in the world, covering the all of Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Just as the name Wells Fargo went into the American psyche, so the name Cobb and Co became known by every school child across Australia. New Blog described a Queensland museum dedicated to this company in Team visits Cobb and Co museum in Toowoomba.


Cobb and Co Museum,
Toowoomba Qld

The expansion into New Zealand was sensible. In 1861, the discovery of gold in Gabriel's Gully in Otago prompted yet another gold rush, includ­ing Australian gold-diggers who sailed for Dunedin. Among these was the Cobb & Co. coach proprietor Charles Cole, who had been running the Ballarat service. Cole landed in Dunedin in 1861 with a coach, 5 wagons, a buggy and dozens of horses. Almost immediately Cobb and Co's first coach left the Provincial Hotel Dunedin for the Police Com­mis­sion­er's Camp at Gabriel's Gully, as described by Otago Gold­fields Heritage Trust blog in Dunstan Trail. The initial journey took three days, but the time was soon reduced to a one day trip by the introd­uction of stables and relays of horses. There was usually an over­night stop at Styx where the lock-up was built to protect the gold bullion.

We can find unexpected snippets of Cobb and Co history all over the blogosphere. The Humble Blog who wrote about The Coffee Palace in Barwon Heads. After describing boating, fishing, picnic parties and other touristy pleasures, visitors in the 1890s were invited to visit the lake. People wanting to participate had to apply to the manager of Cobb and Co. who had well-appointed stables and horses. Coaches left Geelong twice daily, at 9AM and 2PM, during the summer season. Poetry Galore blog included The Lights Of Cobb and Co., written by one of Australia’s most loved poets, Henry Lawson. It was stirring stuff. And art historians have argued that with his revolutionary approach to depicting the Australian bush and our light, Tom Roberts’ Bailed Up was a painting that helped define Australia’s national identity.


Tom Roberts,
Bailed Up, c1894

Great Synagogue of Oran Algeria, 1880-1963

During the later 19th, Jewish communities liked to build large, confident syn­agogues. The buildings had to be big enough to handle all the congregants AND they also had to show that Jews were modern, educated citizens. So the synagogues needed to be architecturally impressive. By mid C19th, the Moorish mudejar style was adopted by the Jews everythere, reminding people of the golden age of Jewry in medieval Spain. Moorish Revival style was quickly adopted as a preferred style of synagogue architecture.

The Great Synagogue of Oran, Algeria

There were 17 synagogues in Oran, a port city on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria, by mid C19th. The biggest of them all, The Great Synagogue, was built and consecrated in 1880, although its in­auguration had to wait until World War One was finishing. Designed in the Orientalist style, it was one of the largest and loveliest synagogues in North Africa. This style was of course in keeping with the rest of the Jewish world.

Oran Synagogue, nave

I have no coloured photos from inside the building so I am totally grateful to the blog Une belle histoire for the post La Synagogue d'Oran - C. He wrote of the multi-coloured stained glass window which lit up the interior. On each side of the main building, the archit­ects created a tower 20 ms high. Three large doors, surmounted by windows, opened onto the nave. Inside, the aisles were separated from the nave by arches that supported columns of red marble. 960 solid oak seats occupied the ground floor.

The Great Synagogue of Timisoara in Romania, completed in 1899, was one of the larg­est synagogues in Europe. This reform synagogue, built in the Oriental style in 1865, was said to resemble the Great Synagogue in Oran.

The Algerian war against French colonial rule placed the Algerian Jewish community in great jeopardy. Sleevez blog showed how the city's Jewish community of 30,000 people continued as best they could in regular life, but from 1954 on, the situation of the Jews deter­iorated. Samuel Gruber's blog and Point Of No Return blog discuss the utter destruction of the lovely synagogue in Algiers by a mob in 1960, but the Oran synagogue seems to have simply been confiscated.

France finally granted Algeria nat­ional independence in July 1962, but worse was to come for the country's Jewish citizens - the Algerian Nationality Code of 1963 granted citizenship in the new state only to Muslims. The end of this ancient community was near. Once the huge community had left, the synagogue was later seized by the government (in 1975) and converted into a mosque, the Mosque Abdellah Ben Salem. At least this wonderful architecture is being used again.

Mosque Abdellah ben Salem

Worth reading is Haim Zeev Hirschberg et al A History of the Jews in North Africa

The Great Synagogue Sydney, 1878

For an excellent history of Sydney’s first Jewish congregation, read Rabbi Raymond Apple's history of the Great Synagogue, Sydney. The formal establishment of Sydney’s first Jewish congregation came in Nov 1831 when “The Jews of the colony assembled at the Jews’ Synagogue held over Mr Rowell’s shop in George St”. Later interior alterations were made by Barnett Aaron Phil­l­ips, a carpenter who had worked at Drury Lane and built Aust­ralia’s first stage scenery in the Theatre Royal. The synagogue ark 1830s was one of the earliest pieces of religious furniture in the country.

Eventually numbers of congregants grew to over 300 adults, so larger premises were leased in Bridge St Sydney. When even bigger facilities were required, a building went up in York St Sydney. This new synagogue had comfortable space for 500 seats and was elab­or­ately furnished. Its ark, larger and even more impressive than that in Bridge St, also survives. The final move came in the 1870s when a site in Elizabeth St was purchased.

Pest Synagogue, 1854-9 [above] ..

Brussels Synagogue 1875 [below]

The Great Synagogue in Sydney was to reflect the important Great Synagogue in the City of London 1788-90 in its practices and possibly its appearance. However the Sydney arch­itecture may have derived its inspiration from a number of different sources, including the Great Synagogue Pest 1854-9 or the Great Synagogue Brussels 1875 built in the Romanesque-Byzantine style.

A comp­et­ition for the design for the new building was won by Sydney architect Thomas Rowe, who planned a building in the French Gothic taste. For financial reasons his plans had to be modified, so Rowe did not get to create his elaborate, dream building. But it didn’t matter; the foundation stone was laid in 1875.

Great Synagogue,  1878
Elizabeth St entrance, Sydney.

Great Synagogue, rose window

The Great Synagogue was consecrated in 1878. This cathedral synagogue was built in sandstone in the neo-gothic style of course, but with some clear Byzantine elements. The most cathedral-like element was the giant rose window in the front wall, facing Elizabeth St and the gorgeous Hyde Park outside. Two square towers flanked the central compart­ment, terminating in beautiful domes, and the entire front was enclosed by ornate cast-iron gates as seen in the Sydney Daily Photo blog.

The interior of the synagogue was designed to maximise the sense of space, due to the height of the cast iron columns. The main décor­at­ive elements were the moulded plaster decorations, the panelled and groined ceiling, carved timber work, stained glass windows and gas-light pendants. As fas as I can see, the deep blue ceiling and silvery stars represented the night sky.

Interior space, men on the ground floor, women in the upper gallery.

Sydney City and Suburbs blog showed a delightful photo as the front appears now, still beautiful but hemmed in between the two adjoining buildings. The building is heritage listed.

St David's Church Haberfield, 1869. 
Another Sydney building designed by Rowe

Keith's Site of Sydney Life showed St David’s Uniting Church 1869 that was designed by the same architect, Thomas Rowe. In particular, note the square Norman style tower, not totally dissimilar to the square towers in front of the Great Synagogue, created just a few years later.

New West End Synagogue London, 1879

Another comparison will prove useful. The New West End Synagogue 1879 in St Petersburgh Place Bayswater, is one of the oldest and most impressive synagogues in London. Compare the date and the architecture with the Great Synagogue in Sydney.

Rural photography; seductive advertising

I don't approve of the advertising industry at all. It knowingly encourages conspicuous consumption, poor dietary habits in primary school children, sexual stereotyping, waste of the world's limited resources (plastic, packaging) and pollution. I rarely watch television that has paid ads, and I never listen to radio that accepts paid advertisements - only the ABC, BBC etc.

Now I have to admit that somewhere, sometime, somehow the advertising industry will hit pay dirt i.e they will find an image/sound/smell/taste that appeals to even the least receptive person. For me, it is this magazine advertisement for Montana wine from New Zealand.

Montana wine advertisement in an Australian women's magazine, 2009 (cropped)

The image presents a simple table in the open country side, with the sun slipping behind the distant hills at dusk. No humans, no animals, no cars, no buildings and no food. But the promise is of glorious scenery, fresh air, twenty of your closest friends, great food and wine, pure colours and no worries about your boss, your mortgage or apologising to the children's high school teachers.

Of course I understand that food doesn't simply appear on a table in a country field - a team of people would have to buy it, cook it in a tent, serve it to the guests and then clean up after. Nonetheless as a piece of visual art, the photographic image is well crafted. As a piece of clever advertising, it is very seductive.

Russian Colonisation of California

I have a vested interest in this story. My family, on leaving Russia, went either to Melbourne in Australia or Winnipeg in Canada. But who knew we may have had a connection to the USA as well?

The Russian American Co. was chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799 as a private trading company in Alaska. A flag was authorised by Czar Alexander I in 1806 and granted to this company, giving the company special recognition in the international trade world.

Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska

From early 1800s, fur trappers of Russian Alaska started to explore the West Coast of the North America, hunting for sea otter pelts as far south as the otters swam. For 40 years thereafter, devel­op­ment of the province continued gradually, at first only as far as San Francisco Bay.

The pre­sence of Russian fur hunters in the North Pacific had already panicked Spain into occupying Alta California. Taking advantage of the chaos created by the war between Spain and Mexico in March 1812, the Russians had freedom to move. In 1812 The Russian-American Co. set up a fortified trading post at Fort Ross, on the Sonoma Coast 100ks north of San Francisco. This, their most south­erly colony in North America, was intended to provide Russian colonies from the frozen north with agricultural goods. 25 Russian and 80 Alaskan men waded ashore, set up a temporary camp, and began building houses and a sturdy wooden stockade for the Ross Colony.

The Russians had come to hunt sea otter and, hope­fully, to trade with Spanish California. It was several months before the civil and military leaders of Alta California were made aware of the devel­op­ment at Ross, and by then it was too late. The fort was complete.

1828 drawing of the Ross Colony

History Hoydens blog noted how the stockade was impressively fortified, in order to give the enemy in Mexico pause to think about invading the Russian outpost. The colony was well armed and well manned. A redwood palisade surround­ed the site, with two block houses, one on the north corner and one to the south, complete with cannons that could command the entire area.

Outside the walls were the homes of company labourers, a native Alaskan village, and the dwellings of the local native Americans. Because the colony had to be largely self-sustaining, there were storehouses and outbuildings for processing the precious pelts, spinning and weaving cloth, a kitchen and a room for pharmaceuticals.

The stockade contained the command­ant’s house, the of­f­icials' quarters, barracks for the Russian employ­ees and various store-houses. A small building, used as the Fort Ross Chapel, was built from 1823-6. This was the first Russian Orthodox church built in mainland USA.

No unmarried Russian women lived at Ross. But inter-marriage between Russians and the natives of Alaska and Calif­ornia was not unknown. Natives and people of mixed ancestry as well as lower-ranking company men lived in a village that gradually grew up outside the stockade walls. Hunting of sea otter, whose pelts were very valuable in the trading world, was done by Kodiak islanders in their Alaskan hunt­ing kayaks. The hunters and their families had their own village out­side the stockade.

But by 1820, extensive hunting had depleted the sea otter pop­ulation so badly that agriculture and stock raising became the main occupation of the colony. Agriculture didn’t interest the Russian sea men, but luckily ship building did. The Russians were first to build ships on the west coast of North America. Four ships were constructed at the Ross colony in Fort Ross Cove.

ComingAnarchy blog noted that as agricultural production in the Fort Ross region declined, a formal trade agreement was signed between the Russian-American Co. and the Hudson Bay Co. in Fort Vancouver. This agreement specified that British Columbia would provide food to Alaska - the kiss of death for the Ross Colony in California.

Rotchev House for the colony's manager

Literrata & Cybernalia blog described what happened when the otter population was decimated and the fur trading business was over. In 1841, the company faced a massive financial loss, so they sold off their colony to settler Captain John Sutter for the sum of $30,000. The Russians packed up everything they could carry and sailed for home. Some left-over animals were rounded up, and the buildings were dismantled. Every­thing salvageable was transported back to Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento Valley.

Today the Fort Ross Compound has one original structure and five restored buildings. The structure of most historical interest at Fort Ross is the Rotchev house, an existing building renovated about 1836 for Alexander Rotchev, the last manager of Ross. Completely destroyed by a fire in 1970, the Fort Ross chapel has since been recreated, bas­ed on whatever historical evidence could be located. Other import­ant Russians buildings have been built from the ground up, still according to the original drawings: the first Russian Orth­odox chapel south of Alaska, the stockade, and four other buildings called the Kuskov House, the Officials Barracks and the two corner blockhouses.

Russian Orthodox Chapel, Ross Colony

The Russian River takes its name from these Russian trappers who explored the river from their Fort Ross trade colony, only 16 km from its mouth. Apparently they called it the Slavyanka River.

Carlo Catani: planning Melbourne's foreshores

Carlo Catani (1852-1918) was born in Florence where he learned engineering at the Technical Institute, and was soon employed in railway con­struction. Early in 1876 Catani and two of his colleagues decided to move to New Zealand. They sailed out of Europe but on arriving in New Zealand, they found no professional work for the new arrivals. Catani and his friends decided instead to push on to Melbourne.

Within a few weeks all three had joined the Department of Lands and Survey as draftsmen. In 1880 Catani was registered as a surveyor under the Land Act. Two years later he and his friends were transferred to the Public Works Dept, where they were employed as engin­eer­ing draughts people preparing plans for harbours, jetties and coast works, and by early 1886 they were assistant engineers. Melbourne was booming and needed keen, young, skilled men.

Catani Gardens, 
main path looking towards the rotunda/bandstand 
built for the 1988 bi-centenary.

This Italian civil engineer supervised many significant projects in and around Melbourne. Casey Cardinia blog wrote that Carlo Catani was one of the Engineers in charge of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Drainage scheme just outside Melbourne and was Catani also responsible for the first mechanical equipment used on the Swamp. This transformed the area into prime farmland.

Catani’s other work with the Public Works Dept included flood mitigation works on the Yarra River. He was responsible for planting the now-magnificent elm trees along Alexandra Avenue. And he designed the Morrell bridge.

St Kilda Council created a foreshore committee in 1906. By that year Catani, who was Chief Engineer of the Public Works Dept, was con­tract­ed to reclaim and beautify the foreshore from St Kilda south-wards down the bay. His successful plan resulted in our famous strolling district, leaving space for beach facilities that became core parts of Melbourne’s foreshore incl Luna Park 1912, the Palais Theatre and Palais de Danse 1926 and just before World War 2, St Moritz Ice Rink 1939. As a result, several landmarks along the fore­shore were his creations. The gardens he designed at the end of Fitzroy Street were named after him, as was the Catani arch bridge on the St Kilda foreshore.

Catani clock tower, with Catani's bust

The clock tower is a very fine copper domed, classical construction that stands with pride on the StKilda esplanade/foreshore. Carlo Catani’s bust, as you can see in the photo, still appears on the Clock tower and it is this monument to a young Italian adventurer that I knew best. Alas, as Melbourne Heritage Watch wrote, the Catani Clock was stopped by rats.

The hot sea baths and hotel on St Kilda main beach in 1910, which replaced the 1862 Gymnasium Baths. In time, the hot sea baths themselves burned down.

I was surprised and delighted to read that the Afrilog Construction, Kenya blog, in CON­STRUCTION NEWS AROUND AUST­RAL­IA, urged that the design of any new development in St Kilda (still being debated in 2009) should remain true to Federation-era legacy of Carlo Catani. Of course our Kenyan blogger colleague is quite correct.