Historical information

The Curator’s lodge, designed by the Town Surveyor, HV Champion, was constructed in 1907 following the re-organisation of the north-east corner with the demolition of the old curator's cottage and erection of new gates.
Lee Heap Furniture Warehouse of Williamstown used the postcards to advertise.

Significance

The postcards are evidence of the interest the gardens held as a subject for postcard publishers. The text and images provide a snapshot into fashions, social interests and concerns of the time. The professionally produced images provide a pictorial history of Gardens including changing planting styles, various structures and features of the Gardens eg the aviary, cannons, the fountain, the second Curator’s Lodge and gates. The images offer an opportunity to compare garden vistas with the present day.

Physical description

A sepia image looking across a path bordered with rocks of a house (the Curators lodge) behind a fence. In front of the fence there is a young girl sitting on a rock with a young boy standing beside her. The house is timber with two brick chimneys, the right hand one half hidden by foliage. The house is federation style with timber battening above the front window. A timber frieze is above a verandah supported by three posts and light coloured brackets.

Inscriptions & markings

Front: ‘Williamstown Gardens. Vic.’ ‘0457/1’ THE CROWN STUDIOS, SYDNEY’. Reverse: Centre top ‘POST CARD’ with a logo in the middle of the words. Left top corner a drawing of an artist’s board and brushes with a camera in the centre. Left side ‘MESSAGE ONLY.’ Right side ‘ADDRESS ONLY.’ Top right corner inside a dotted rectangle ‘STAMP HERE’. Bottom on card ‘BY THE CROWN STUDIOS, SYNDEY.’ Under the vertical line down the middle line ‘Neither the Address not the Message must cross this line’. In ink ‘With Compliments / from’. An oval stamp with scalloped rim ‘LEE HEAP FURNITURE MANUFACTURER’ inside inner oval ‘FURNITURE WAREHOUSE, / WILLIAMSTOWN’.