Did you know that today's Tip Top apartment complex began life as a quarry in the 1860s?
The quarry was owned by brothers George and John Storie who had married in a double wedding in Edinburgh, Scotland in April 1853 then with their brides Ann and Helen migrated to Australia together four months later.
Shortly after their arrival they were living in Brunswick - in Edward Street.
In Scotland the brothers had been stone masons. Here they made their living as quarrymen.
Les Barnes, the legendary historian of Brunswick, notes in his 1987 publication Street Names of Brunswick, that the Storie brothers' quarry later became the Tip Top Factory site. Their home, as the Sands and MacDougall Street Directories make clear, was a little further down the street.
By the 1870s John had moved on to Nicholson Street where he quarried and George had settled in Edward Street where he set up as a bootmaker.
George and Ann Storie had 11 sons, all born during their time in Edward Street. Six of them were still alive when Ann died in 1894 and all (except one married son) were still living at home. By then the Storie family had been living in the same house for 40 years. Family members remained in the street well into the twentieth century.
Up until the turn of the 20th century, the south side of Edward Street was made up mostly of individual homes, although there was always a large gap between what was number 288 and number 296, the site of what had been the Storie brothers' quarry. (Note: Street numbers changed over time. Probably the most significant change happened right across the suburb (and Coburg as well) in 1925.)
By 1900, that gap was filled when W.H. Rocke and Company built a new terracotta tile factory on the site. But more of this in the next post.
Sources:
Moreland Libraries Local History Catalogue
Les Barnes, Street Names of Brunswick (1987 edition)
Sands and MacDougall Street Directories
Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage indexes
Family history material (accessed via Ancestry)
Victorian Inward Shipping Records
Victorian electoral rolls (accessed via Ancestry)
Monumental Inscription for Storie family grave at Melbourne General Cemetery (accessed via Genealogical Society of Victoria)
Newspapers accessed through the TROVE collection, including:
Argus, 30 Aug 1858
Herald, Sat 23 April 1887
Coburg Leader, 1 July 1910
Shortly after their arrival they were living in Brunswick - in Edward Street.
In Scotland the brothers had been stone masons. Here they made their living as quarrymen.
Les Barnes, the legendary historian of Brunswick, notes in his 1987 publication Street Names of Brunswick, that the Storie brothers' quarry later became the Tip Top Factory site. Their home, as the Sands and MacDougall Street Directories make clear, was a little further down the street.
George Storie and son, c1863. Image courtesy Moreland Libraries. The child is possibly Robert, born 1860. He died in 1866 aged 5 and is buried in the family plot in the Presbyterian Section of Melbourne General Cemetery.
Ann Storie and son, c1863. Image courtesy Moreland Libraries. This child is possibly son Francis (Frank), born 1863, who was still living in Edward Street in 1919.
By the 1870s John had moved on to Nicholson Street where he quarried and George had settled in Edward Street where he set up as a bootmaker.
George and Ann Storie had 11 sons, all born during their time in Edward Street. Six of them were still alive when Ann died in 1894 and all (except one married son) were still living at home. By then the Storie family had been living in the same house for 40 years. Family members remained in the street well into the twentieth century.
The Storie family home in Edward Street, Brunswick. Image courtesy Moreland Libraries. Although Les Barnes notes in Street Names of Brunswick that Edward Street first appeared in the Sands and McDougall Street Directories in 1864, it seems clear from the Storie family's history that the street had existed for some time before then.
Up until the turn of the 20th century, the south side of Edward Street was made up mostly of individual homes, although there was always a large gap between what was number 288 and number 296, the site of what had been the Storie brothers' quarry. (Note: Street numbers changed over time. Probably the most significant change happened right across the suburb (and Coburg as well) in 1925.)
By 1900, that gap was filled when W.H. Rocke and Company built a new terracotta tile factory on the site. But more of this in the next post.
Sources:
Moreland Libraries Local History Catalogue
Les Barnes, Street Names of Brunswick (1987 edition)
Sands and MacDougall Street Directories
Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage indexes
Family history material (accessed via Ancestry)
Victorian Inward Shipping Records
Victorian electoral rolls (accessed via Ancestry)
Monumental Inscription for Storie family grave at Melbourne General Cemetery (accessed via Genealogical Society of Victoria)
Newspapers accessed through the TROVE collection, including:
Argus, 30 Aug 1858
Herald, Sat 23 April 1887
Coburg Leader, 1 July 1910
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