Historical information

This photograph informs the viewer of the grand ballroom at Rippon Lea homestead in Elsternwick in the late 1800s. One of 33 rooms in this mansion, built for Fredrick Sargood in 1868, the ballroom stood where the swimming pool is currently located. Louisa Jones’ (nee Nathan) love of the 1930s Hollywood style prompted her to demolish the old ballroom and replace it with the swimming pool. She converted Sargood’s billiard room into a ballroom during the late 1930s.

Physical description

Large black and white photograph (now sepia with age) in a ' landscape format' mounted on cardboard. The room featured in the image has an arched dome-shaped roof, a floor adorned with rugs, a vast and heavily ornate space and approximately 12 wicker chairs in the foreground.

Inscriptions & markings

Written on verso of mount: 'Ballroom & organ at Rippon Lea'
Stamped onto front left bottom corner of photograph: 'Johnstone & O'Shannessy/ & Co./ Propy. Ltd/ Collins St. Melb.'