Builder John Kalkbrenner, tenant Leah Green and architect Alasdair Macleod outside the restored cottage in Williamstown. 87680 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By ALESHA CAPONE
A HERITAGE-listed house with a colourful history has been restored to its former glory.
Number 4, Cox’s Garden, Williamstown, was built around 1855.
Home to a variety of residents since then, the premises is now a beauty salon run by Leah Green.
Five years ago, Alasdair Macleod purchased the rundown property and decided to restore its original splendour.
Luckily, Mr Macleod is managing director of the Essendon-based BSS Group Architects which planned the cottage’s makeover.
“We have spent a lot of time on the renovations to get the building just right and as it would have appeared,” Mr Macleod said.
Mr Macleod has tracked down past tenants of the home including Barbara Iley who lived at the cottage during the 1950s.
Now aged 77 and a grandmother of three, Mrs Iley recalled when her former home had no electricity, a tap at the back door and a sewer toilet out the back.
“The Cox home backed onto a hotel and they did SP gambling out the back there, which was highly illegal in those days,” she said.
“The policeman used to go through Cox’s to spy on them from a tree and my husband would go in the hotel to warn them.
“The house was 100 years old when we were in it.
“The stumps in the house were tree-trucks and if you jumped up and down the floor would shake.”
Ms Illey said after they moved into the cottage her husband George carried out several renovations.
“After we married, he took me down there and I said, ‘Don’t you think I’m going to live the slums of Williamstown’,” she said.
“But he didn’t pay any attention to what I said. He went ahead and bought it.”
