Historical information

This work forms part of the collection assembled by the historian Dorothy Rogers, that was donated to the Kew Historical Society by her son John Rogers in 2015. The manuscripts, photographs, maps, and documents were sourced by her from both family and local collections or produced as references for her print publications. Many were directly used by Rogers in writing ‘Lovely Old Homes of Kew’ (1961) and 'A History of Kew' (1973), or the numerous articles on local history that she produced for suburban newspapers. Most of the photographs in the collection include detailed annotations in her hand.

Significance

The Rogers Collection provides a comprehensive insight into the working habits of a historian in the 1960s and 1970s. Together it forms the largest privately-donated collection within the archives of the Kew Historical Society.

Physical description

‘Elm Lodge’ had a frontage to Wellington Street and extended to Cotham Road. It was renamed ‘Madford’ in 1874, after its purchase by the pastoralist Arthur Septimus King, the grandson of Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales. The Alexandra Gardens were developed on the northern section of Madford after the sale of the land to the Borough of Kew in 1905. King’s house, and the remaining garden, was sold to the Catholic Church in 1920, and subsequently developed into ‘St Anthony’s Home for Babies’ in 1922. The organisation relocated to Footscray in 1975, and the building demolished.

Inscriptions & markings

"Madford (formerly Elm Lodge) in Wellington Street Kew during the period when it was St. Anthony's Home for babies (now demolished). From the 1860s it had been the home of the King family. Harold Septimus King was one of the notable residents of Kew."