Listed Building record MDR10817 - 49 Church Street, Melbourne

This is an impressive three-storey house, with a two-storey gabled wing in front of the western end. On the east end the house is joined to No. 51 (SMR 31704); to the west is a wide entry with a drive and small garden, no doubt on the site of former outbuildings. The front part of the house is the oldest and is of at least three dates. First was a low cottage or row of cottages of one storey with a loft, two or three rooms long and largely if not wholly walled in stone. This was part of the same building as No. 51 and like it was erected some time in the 17th century. Perhaps about 1730 the building was raised to have an upper storey and at the same time the front wall was rebuilt in brick. The next alteration was the addition of the rear part of the house, which is probably a reconstruction and enlargement of an earlier, narrower stone-walled rear wing or outhouse at the eastern side, which had a cellar under it. The main doorway of this part suggests that it was built as a separate dwelling between about 1750-1770. The top floor of the main range was added in the early 19th century and the front wall stuccoed to conceal the alteration. The original purpose of the large upper room is now lost; possibly it was designed as a meeting room for an illegal or secret organisation such as a Friendly Society. The 1840 Survey of Melbourne records the property as a public house, the White Lion, with brewhouse, stables etc., and by 1866 the large upper room was regularly used as a ballroom. The property was purchased by the Melbourne Estate in 1867, and was been a private house by 1876. (1)