The Stonnington History Centre is an archive dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the City of Stonnington and its community.
Situated within the historic house Northbrook, right behind Malvern Library, the centre is a branch of the Stonnington Library and Information Service and provides local history information services, and holds an impressive archival collection.
The collection comprises photographs, maps, building and subdivision plans, annual reports, and correspondence, in paper and electronic formats.
It’s alway where you will find rate records and Council minutes from the former Malvern and Prahran municipalities, as well as a substantial archive of historical material relating to local schools, businesses, religious and cultural institutions, individuals and families, sporting clubs and grass-roots community groups. And our collection is always growing.
The centre also runs events such as regular History Matters seminars and a monthly Family History Club, open to all.
New to the archives
The Stonnington History Centre was recently gifted some new archival materials.
In the 1980s and 1990s, (way before Google Street View, and before photos routinely appeared in real estate campaigns), commercial illustrators were commissioned to produce drawings for advertisements. Margaret Picken was one such artist. Margaret recently donated her collection of drawings of Stonnington residences to the History Centre. The collection features a valuable record of houses, which may have since been demolished, such as the one pictured below (at 32 Hyslop Parade in Malvern East), drawn in 1993.
You can find more of her illustrations in our catalogue.
Schools are also great places for capturing historic moments and milestones and a vast number of images have been captured and collected over the years to mark their contribution to and significance for the local community.
Pictured below is a photograph of the 1936 prep class at Malvern East Central School (now Lloyd Street Primary School).
The photo was donated to the Stonnington History Centre by Malvern Historical Society. We don’t know if the dog is a student’s, or maybe the teacher’s pet?
Did you know there is park in Stonnington with a link to Young and Jackson’s Hotel and the National Gallery of Victoria?
John Henry Connell worked with his uncle Thomas Jackson at the Prince’s Bridge Hotel (Young and Jackson’s), before making his fortune as a publican in his own right.
A generous man, Connell donated a valuable collection of decorative arts and furniture to the NGV, and gifted a parcel of land on the corner of Greville and Alfred streets, known as Connell Park, for a children’s playground, to the then Prahran Council.
