From the arrival its first resident in 1839, the Police Captain William Lonsdale, East Melbourne has been a pivotal location in the history of the colony of Victoria and been home to many of its significant figures.

The Lieutenant Governor of the fledgling colony, Charles La Trobe chose East Melbourne as the site for his home, purchasing 12 acres in the area known as ‘Jolimont’, named after the family home of his Swiss wife Sophie. Many notables followed the Governor to this prized address.

Among them was James Liddell Purves QC, who built Mosspennoch in Clarendon Street in 1882. Purves was a prominent barrister, leader of the Victorian bar and president of the Australian Natives Association.
Possessed of a quick intelligence, great charm and fluent tongue, Purves was a significant influencer of colonial opinion through his witty column in the Melbourne Herald, ‘Talk of the Town’. Purves served in the Victorian Parliament from 1872 to 1880 and represented The Age in two libel cases in the 1890s.

The MCG has been a dominant feature of the East Melbourne landscape since 1853 when the Melbourne Cricket Club selected the site as the venue for its home games. The first grandstand was a wooden structure built for the members in 1854. A temporary 6000- seat public grandstand was erected in 1861. In 1871 the MCG hosted the world’s first Test cricket match when Australia played James Lillywhite’s visiting English eleven. The original members’ stand was replaced in 1881 by a new brick grandstand, considered at the time to be the finest cricket facility in the world. This iconic stadium has since seen many incarnations of its grandstands, and many historic sporting contests, including the cricket’s first Test match and One Day International, the Centenary Test, the 1956 Olympic Games and the 2006 Commonwealth Games and, of course, over a century of AFL Grand Finals.

Mosspennoch was designed for Purves by architect Charles Webb, who was also responsible for the Alfred Hospital, Mandeville Hall in Toorak, the Royal Arcade, and the Windsor Hotel.

An Italianate mansion with curved glass in its front bow windows, Mosspennoch was the largest dwelling in East Melbourne when it was built in 1882, surpassed only by Cliveden in 1887.

After Purves death, Mosspennoch became a boarding house. Known as The Ritz, it was operated by the Geach family. Their prominence in theatrical and artistic circles attracted a colourful clientele. The building was purchased by the Red Cross in 1949 and renamed Philadelphia Robertson House after an early leader of that society.

Mosspennoch can be seen in this photo from 1924 It sits to the left of Cliveden, the enormous mansion on the corner of Wellington Parade and Clarendon Street.