Fremantle Stuff > Buildings > Multicultural Centre (click/tap images to enlarge)

Multicultural Centre

One of two 1893 semi (duplex) pairs at 237-239 and 241-243 High St. This is the Multicultural Centre, the eastern, higher building, at 241-243.

Below is a view across Fremantle Park towards the buildings in 1909.

freo park 1909

Looking South East from the Australia Hotel.
From a post card. In the left background is the Obelisk on Monument Hill. In front of it and slightly to the right is Ivanhoe (1889), the large house on the corner of Ord and High Streets erected for James Lilly. Ellen Street runs across the picture, edged with large houses overlooking Fremantle Park. The old Catholic Presbytery is at the extreme right front next to the Proclamation Tree and Marmion Memorial. In the left foreground is a shingle roofed cottage in Victoria Road, occupied by the Nelson family (J W Nelson was a general carrier). A small tram is on the corner of the Princess May School playground.
Photograph, taken 1909, from the Fremantle City Library Local History Photographic Collection: 1775. (Text from the Library entry.)

What buildings in the photograph remain? Ivanhoe is definitely (and sadly) gone, but the building opposite it, across High St, on the extreme left of the photo, is Lenaville, which was built in 1885 for Henry Blinco (1832-1907), Chief Warder of the Prison. And on the other side of Ord St from Ivanhoe, in High St, may be seen what started as two pairs of semi-detached houses, and which still exist. The higher (left) pair currently houses the Fremantle Multicultural Centre, at 241-243 High St. Two or three of the two-storey house along Ord St to our right from Ivanhoe are probably the houses that are still there. There will be others: those are all I can spot at the moment. The impressive two-storey building on Ellen St, just to the left of the centre of the photo, is identified in the photo further down this page as Christian Brothers College. I'm not sure right now if the building still there: I think not, tho CBC as such is still there.

References and Links

Seddon, George, 2000, Looking at an Old Suburb: A Walking Guide to Four Blocks of Fremantle, UWAP.


Garry Gillard | New: 31 December, 2014 | Now: 8 November, 2019