I don’t yet know a lot about this property, when it was built or who initially owned it, but I did some research of it around 1899/1900. This is what I found.
In 1897, the house and next door (203) was owned by Thomas Tame of Heidelberg Road, Alphington. Tame owned a lot of property in Fitzroy including, 3 cottages on Young St, 2 two storey terraces on Young St, 3 brick cottages on Webb St, 2 brick cottages fronting Napier street, 4 two storey terraces on Little George Street and these two houses on Gore Street. In 1897, Mr Roberts was renting 201 as a furnished boarding house (Will and Probate – Ancestry)
After his death in November 1897, Mrs Roberts sells all the furniture of the house including beds, piano etc (Trove).
It appears some time after this, that Edwin Rogerson moved in with his extended family, including his wife Eveline, and sons James (1883), Percy Gilbert (1884) and Herbert William (1893). They had lived in various rented houses in Fitzroy previously. Curiously Edwin Rogerson is listed once in Sands & McDougall in 1900, but more often it was Elizabeth A Gilbert that was listed. The rates books for 1899 and 1900 confirming that she was the primary Lodger, with the property still owned at that time by the Estate of Thomas Tome.
I expect that Elizabeth ran the place as a Boarding House during this period with the help of her daughter Eveline who was married to Edwin Rogerson. Edwin Rogerson who migrated from Cornwall in 1878 was a book keeper. He had married Eveline in 1883 and died at 201 Gore Street in 1901. It appears that Elizabeth continued to run the boarding house after this until her death in 1907. Their oldest son then married Louisa Walkley in 1912 and they move to Malvern, before being posted around different locations in Victoria as James was a postmaster.
According to John Woodward, great grandson of James Rogerson:
The Walkley family which my grandfather married into was a large and interesting family in Fitzroy. They moved to Melbourne at about the same time as the Rogersons and lived in Fitzroy – on Gore Street which is probably how James and Louisa met. The Walkley family members Albion and John ran the Phoenix Clothing company in the city. Another sister Sabina ran the Parade Hotel on Victoria Parade Fitzroy. A second sister – Lucretia, was married to a church minister John Hosking who ran the Congregational church in Gore Street where his Irish temper led to some interesting accounts in the local newpapers.
However, this is where my branch of the family starts. James Rogerson and Louisa had 3 children between 1915 and 1925. The marriage was never straightforward and they divorced in 1935. James met my grandmother Marjorie Rutter at that time when he was posted back to Sandringham and my mother came on the scene shortly after. James was 52 when my mother was born, Marjorie was 33. They moved to Mildura where James was postmaster and stayed there until he retired in 1950. He was a noted figure in Mildura and was awarded life membership of the Sunrasia Football League and the Mildura Cricket Association. He was a commentator on ABC radio and read out the sports results on Saturday afternoons. They moved to Foster in Gippsland after his retirement to be with some of the Rutter family there and James died in 1954. I never met James as I was born in 1960.
The sad thing in all of this was that my mother never new that she had 3 step siblings as it was never talked about within the family. I only was able to trace and contact them in 2019 many years after her death in 1994.
Many thanks to John for sharing his story and also his amazing connection to Fitzroy.
If you know more about this house and its history, please let me know!