Fleming House, Park Street, West Brunswick
Owned and lived in by John Wood and Mary Weir Fleming for over 50 years, Fleming House stood on the hill at the western end of Brunswick Road and Park Street, facing Royal Park, for almost 100 years from 1868 to the late 1960s.
On 19 October 1866, John paid £208 for six acres of undeveloped land in 12 lots between Brunswick Road and Park Street West running from what became MacVean Street to what became Fleming Street. It was only half a mile from ‘Mia Mia’ in Union Street. The plan was to build a substantial house on the hill opposite
the Royal Park Model Farm and facing the city. A tower would afford views over Royal Park to the Yarra River and the shipping in Hobson’s Bay. Imagine the excitement of planning and designing the house, looking forward to the future and progress along with the burgeoning suburb of Brunswick! On 11 June 1867 John bought the other three lots 13, 14, 15, next to MacVean Street, of 2 1⁄4 acres for a total of £74.10.0. He later acquired land west of Fleming Street to the Moonee Ponds Creek.
The house took several years to build, and they moved in in the middle of 1870.
It was a two storeyed brick house of 12 rooms with a slate roof, balcony and tower. The house encompassed a drawing room, a dining room, a morning room, a library, front and back halls, verandah and balcony, stairs and landing, five bedrooms, two maids’ rooms, two bathrooms, a sleepout, a kitchen with pantry, press and storeroom, a back verandah, laundry and a lavatory.
Outside in the yards were various sheds for poultry and pigeons, a wood/fuel shed, a garage and stables with three stalls, a loose box, a loft and harness room, a large open fronted work shed and a kitchen garden. Later the grounds also boasted a conservatory, a glass house, neat gardens, lawns and ornamental trees.
John rented out some of his land near the creek to Chinese market gardeners- Ah Tay and Ah Ho and others over the years, no doubt buying their vegetables. The land around was home to horses, cattle, poultry and greyhounds
Eleven children were brought up in the house. Many social events, birthdays, weddings, afternoon teas and gatherings were celebrated over the years. Illnesses were nursed and funerals left from the house for the Melbourne General Cemetery.
In 1885 Fleming Street was first recorded in the Sands and McDougall Directories. It divided John’s property across from Park Street to Brunswick Road. John and Mary’s address was Fleming House, Park Street West. When street numbers were introduced in 1893, the house was numbered as 270 Park Street, West Brunswick. In the 1940s it was re numbered #196 and by the 2000s the numbers changed again.
Fleming House was put up for sale on 12 April 1924, the property having been subdivided into 83 lots for business and home sites. The new owners lived in Fleming House for the next 40 years until the 1960s when it was demolished, as the cost of repair was too prohibitive to maintain the old structure.
Today in 2021, on the site of Fleming House are flats, built in the late 1960s, facing both roads, being No. 881-883 Park Street, called
‘Park View’ and backing onto No. 380-382 Brunswick Road called ‘Brunswick Heights’.
The name of Fleming is remembered today by the naming of Fleming Street in West Brunswick and of Fleming Park in East Brunswick. As well, Fleming Place, off Little Collins Street in the city, reminds us of pioneer Robert Fleming’s first land purchase in 1837, the last of it held until 1938.
Mary Weir Fleming in her garden with her two eldest grandsons, Ernie & Jack c1903
Contributed by Margaret Fleming, PPPG member No 679.