Thomas and Jane Slaven lived at a house on this site from 1886 to 1898. Throughout the nineteenth century, the western part of Port Melbourne, including the areas of Albert St, Farrell St, Cambridge St and Clark St, was a more predominantely working class area. One of the main landowners in this area was Jane Slaven, nee McKenna. Jane McKenna was born in Ireland, and worked as a servant in Melbourne before marrying Thomas Slaven, a successful labourer who invested in over thirty properties in Port Melbourne. Jane inherited her husband’s property after his death in 1891. The cottages owned by the Slavens were constructed on low-lying land, which compounded the wider issues of sewage disposal and drainage which affected the area at this time. During the 1880s and 1890s, these properties were repeatedly named by the Port Melbourne Council as failing to provide sanitary living conditions for Slaven’s tenants, an issue which may have been compounded by damage to adjacent footpaths and sand being illegally taken from the front of the properties. Between 1896-98, a total of twenty of these cottages were condemned and then demolished by order of the City of Port Melbourne. The current house on this site was constructed by George Cuscasen in 1905 after the demolition of the earlier property. Women’s land ownership on this large scale, was not widespread in Melbourne at this time, and Slaven’s wealth and position as a property owner made her an influential figure in Port Melbourne.
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