Aldourie 87 Alma Road

In the 1850s crown land sales, Alexander Fraser purchased a five acre lot on the southeast corner of Alma and Chapel Streets extending to Argyle Street. In about 1863 or 1864 Crouch and Wilson designed a nine-room brick and stone rendered two-storey home with a south facing balcony on his behalf. Fraser, a partner in auctioneers Fraser and Cohen, became one of St Kilda's first councillors in 1857 and in 1858 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council. He named his home Aldourie for his Scottish birthplace.

The well known Hebden pastoralist family came into possession of the mansion and the surrounding five acres along Chapel Street following Fraser's death. In 1890 Harriett Hebden, the widow of pastoralist George Hepden died at Aldourie. The Hebden's retained the property until the death of Miss E S Hebden in 1942 when it was purchased by garage proprietor G R Greaves who loaned Aldourie to the RAAF Auxiliaries for the duration of the War as accommodation for the children of servicemen fighting overseas. The RAAF renamed it 'Welfare House'.

After the War, Greaves subdivided all the land bordering Chapel Street down to Argyle Street. In the 2000s, apartments have completely surrounded the old home so that only a small part of the western wall of the original home is visible along the Chapel Street side.

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