Undated photograph, showing the frieze on buildings located at 135-137 Nelson Place. The shops and residences at 131-137 Nelson Place, were designed by Michael Egan and constructed between 1873 and 1885. nelson place, shops, 135 nelson place

Undated photograph, showing the frieze on buildings located at 135-137 Nelson Place. The shops and residences at 131-137 Nelson Place, were designed by Michael Egan and constructed between 1873 and 1885. nelson place, shops, 135 nelson place

No. 131-137 Nelson Place are shops and residences, designed by Michael Egan and constructed between 1873 and 1885. The building is recorded in the Hobsons Bay Heritage Study Amended 2017, which notes the following: Sale of the old Customs House Reserve in 1872 generated these allotments for boot maker, Robert Creeke's commercial development. Owning and part occupying already two shops in Nelson Place, between Thompson and Ann Streets (built for Creeke in 1864-5), architect Michael Egan called tenders for the first two, then single storey, stone and brick shops (135-37) of this group in 1873. Early lessees were George Douglas, watchmaker and Charles Lumsden who kept dining rooms (2). In 1877, Creeke built another (No. 133) of two storeys and of five rooms and occupied it, still leasing out the two older premises to George Taylor, a tobacconist, and a firm of drapers, Tait and Aitken (2). By 1885, 131 Nelson Place was constructed and a storey added to the others so now these four shops of four rooms and numbers 133-37, of six rooms each, were owned by Creeke until at least 1902 (3). His tenants were various tradesmen. e.g. Henry Drew, a boot maker, Alfred Brown a watchmaker, Miss Jane Service, a stationer; and George Morwick Jnr., a sail-maker. It is presumed that Egan designed the final complex.nelson place, 131-137 nelson place