In the days before milk was sold in bottles or cartons, dairies were common. Often they were very small operations selling milk from a gate into the backyard of a house. Somewhat larger was the dairy at 183 Macpherson Street, North Carlton where a yard with outbuildings sat beside a double-fronted Victorian house. In 1926 it was taken over by the Pahoff family who had earlier fled anti-semitism in their native Ukraine. Like many in the substantial Jewish population of Carlton at that time, they were Yiddish-speaking. The business flourished and from 1937 became known as the Tel Aviv dairy. Once established in Carlton, Myer and Chaya Pahoff began to assist the emigration of relatives in Ukraine by lending them money for fares. They met every boat on which relatives arrived and had accommodation waiting for them. The newcomers then had to repay the debt to finance further sponsorships. By 1929, when the Soviet government stopped migration, the Pahoffs had thus assisted more than 40 related families. The dairy ceased trading in 1967 but family members continued to live in the house until 2013, when the side yard where carts and horses were once housed was still quite unchanged.
by cchg on Sept. 28, 2018Please login to comment on this item