John Jones 1836-1909: West Melbourne builder

David Evans is a long-time member of the Hotham History Project.

David's interest in local history was aroused when, in 1995, he moved into his home in Hawke St and discovered a note stating the house had been built in 1881 by local builder John Jones.

John Jones was born in March 1836 in North Wales. His father died when he was three years old and he was brought up by his mother. He learnt the trade of stone masonry, a skill in great demand in the developing Australia.

At the age of 20 he, and four other local young men, decided to seek their fortunes on the other side of the world. John had been preceded by an uncle and cousin who had both established themselves as builders within Victoria. John initially worked with his uncle at Portland but was lured to the goldfields. After a stint there he returned to Melbourne where he continued in the building trade with his cousin, David Hughes. He later became an independent builder.

In 1867 John lodged an application with the City of Melbourne to build two cottages for himself in Hawke St. It was in one of these that John started his married life when, in January 1874, he married Margaret Jones in the Welsh Church. Margaret came from Bala, Merionethshire and she had arrived in Melbourne three years earlier.

The couple had six children but only three survived – two daughters and a son. As the following list shows, John built several local houses around West Melbourne …

• 1873: 112 Hawke St
• 1874: 179 Adderley St, 44 and 46 Hawke St
• 1875: 114 Hawke St
• 1877: 82, 148, 152 Roden St
• 1879: 80 Roden St, 76 and 78 Hawke St
• 1880: 80 Hawke St
• 1881: 74 Hawke St
• 1882: 220 Adderley St
• 1883: 218 Adderley St
• 1884: 93 and 94 Roden St, 218A Adderley St
• 1887: 136 Adderley St
• 1889: 131 Hawke St

John had been able to purchase four blocks of land in Hawke St in 1875 and 1878. He first built terrace houses on numbers 76 and 78 that he sold, and a further house at number 80 that he also sold.

Then in late 1881 or early 1882 the family moved into his newly-built home at number 74. It was named Bodiwan, literally House of Evan from the Welsh: bod means house and Iwan is Welsh for Evan.

The house had six principal rooms. Downstairs was a front drawing room with a white marble mantelpiece, a separate dining room with a black marble mantelpiece, and a kitchen at the rear. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and a bathroom. The backyard held an outhouse and washhouse and a loft above that was accessible from the back lane.

While there are no original plans for the building it appears to be similar in design to a two-storey house that John built in 1882 at 220 Adderley St for Mr William Clarke. The contract for this house specifies some of the details matching those of his own house. There was a damp course of tar and sand to prevent damp rising in the walls with one course of hard bricks on top of the tar. And “run cornice to two front rooms and hall to arch and fix buttress to same”.

A fuller account of John Jones’ life and work is contained in a chapter by David Evans included in the book recently published by the Hotham History Project West Melbourne: A Sense of Place.

The book, available to purchase for $39 .95, is available through the website: hothamhistory.org.au •