It’s been a family home, a boarding house, offices and even a house of ill-repute.
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Specimen Cottage standing firm on the corner of Mundy and Hargreaves streets testifies to the quality of stonemason James Brierley’s work.
The house is the oldest known in Bendigo, and has stood for over 150 years. It will be open to the public for Bendigo’s first Open House weekend.
Mr Brierley built the house in two stages, as a single story cottage in 1856. A double story addition in 1861 functioned as a separate home.
It was his family home until the 1870s, when it was leased to a series of tenants.
Maria Steele, one of the first of these is listed in ratebook as a ‘harlot’, making it one of the few houses in Bendigo from that period known to be used as a brothel.
Bendigo Historical Society Member Barbara Poustie has written a book detailing the history of the Brierley family, ‘Written in Stone’.
The quality of the building he did at specimen cottage he was obviously a skilled stonemason.
- Barbara Poustie
Her researches show him as a dedicated family man, and a skilled stonemason.
“I get a picture of him being just a genuine hardworking man who lost three children out of five,” Mrs Poustie said.
“The quality of the building he did at Specimen Cottage he was obviously a skilled stonemason.”
Mr Brierley had emigrated from Manchester around 1848 with his wife Hannah and sister Mary. Then in their early twenties, Mr and Mrs Brierley were sent to the Hunter Valley to do twelve months work to pay off their service.
They then moved to Adelaide, where their daughter was born, before selling up and moving to the Goldfields at Chewton.
Mr Brierley came to the area in search of gold, like most people.
But in the end, he relied on his trade as a stone mason to support his family.
By 1864 the Brierley’s were living in Bendigo. Here Mr Brierley bought the block of land running along Hargreaves Street in the first land sales.
Here he built Specimen Cottage. It bears this name because it was a specimen of his work, designed to show off his skill, Bendigo Historical Society president Jim Evans said.
The original 1856 cottage contains six rooms, and a toilet. The later upstairs addition contains two main rooms, with a cantilever veranda.
Though Specimen Cottage boasts the title of Bendigo’s oldest house still standing, substantial buildings were being built at the time, Mr Evans said.
Read more: An excellent specimen of stonemasonry skill
Among these were the Hotel Shamrock, and the Colonial Bank of Australasia.
These structures shot up after 1854, when Bendigo’s streets were laid out.
While in Specimen Cottage the Brierley family grew, but not without pain.
While living at Chewton Mrs Brierley had given birth to a son who died as a young child.
While in Specimen Cottage Mrs Brierley had another son, and daughter, who both died young. Her youngest child, a son, survived.
They lived in the cottage until the early 1870s, when they moved to a house in Barnard Street, also built by Mr Brierley’s hand.
The cottage is normally open two days a week. It will throw open its doors on October 27-28 for Bendigo’s first Open House weekend.
The weekend will see 23 significant buildings open for public viewing over the weekend.
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