Mittagong, formerly Fernleigh (demolished), 35-41 Grey Street

The lot was first purchased by R H Bunbury in the 1842 land sales.

The first house here was probably built in 1851 (1), for William Nicholson (1816-65), a successful grocer, and at the time a Melbourne City Councillor (since St Kilda was part of the City of Melbourne), and Lord Mayor later that year (2,3). Through the 1850s his business grew to include banking and insurance, and he became a prominent member of Parliament, serving as Premier of Victoria 1859-60.  The house was known as Fernleigh, though the first mention of that name is not until 1868.

In the 1860s the history of Fernleigh became intertwined with the house next door, Barham (later Eildon).  E B Green, who ran many mail-coach lines, had built a grand Regency style house there in 1850, but leased it out after 1853, undertaking trips back and forth to England. In Nov 1861 he died there, leaving Nicholson as one of the executors of his estates in Australia (4). Because of this, or possibly just before, Nicholson leased Barham and moved his family from next door (5). Nicholson remained active in politics until a severe illness in 1863, and then died in 1865. His passing was widely reported in the press, with his funeral procession leaving from Barham passing through the city to the Melbourne General Cemetery. He was survived by his widow Sarah Birkett née Fairclough, who is thought to have leased her old house Fernleigh to businessman Richard Twentyman about that time (6). He had arrived around 1865 from London where he had a silk business. He was a widower, and he and Sarah were married in June 1866, and he then moved into Barham with her.

A birth notice of Sept 1868 shows that their son John Nicholson occupied Fernleigh, at least breifly. 

In 1869 the Nicholson Estate put Fernleigh up for sale, though the auction notice states it was offered by Mrs Twentyman (7), and it was purchased by her husband Richard Twentyman. He then commissioned architect Charles Webb (1821-1898) to enlarge or rebuild the house (8), renaming it Mittagong, and the family then relocated next door in 1870. Sarah had therefore moved next door and back again in the space of about 10 years. Twentyman had a large painting collection, many hung in the large ‘ballroom-cum-gallery’, which included many works by British artist Benjamin Hayden, whom he had supported back in London. One work, Marcus Curtius, is now in the NGV collection. In 1874 Sarah’s son William Dalzell Nicholson drowned in a shipwreck off King Island. She commissioned a stained glass memorial window by makers Ferguson & Urie for Christ Church St Kilda, which has a roundel depicting the event (8).

The Twentymans lived at Mittagong for a decade until Richard’s death in Feb 1880. Later that year Sarah sold it (10), and died herself in December the next year.

The house was bought by pastoralist Robert Arthur Molesworth (1844-1920), second son of the judge Sir Robert Molesworth (1809-1890). It remained in the Molesworth family for 60 years, with frequent mentions of card and garden parties, balls and ‘at homes’, right up to the marriage of grand-daughter Maroa Molesworth in May 1939 (11).

In Nov that year it was reported sold, in March 1940 there was a ‘demolition sale’, and in Nov 1940, with Eildon Road extended and Eildon Court created, the newly subdivided lots were auctioned off (12). Numerous blocks of flats were immediately built, part of the mini-boom in apartments of 1940-41, just as WWII started.