A VISIT TO ELWOOD JUNCTION 1940s AND 1950s

 

Ken Corbett lived in Elwood from 1934 to 1957.

In 2006, he created the memory map below of the Elwood of his childhood centred on the junction of Broadway, Glenhuntly and Ormond Roads.  This map enables one to shop in the village of yesteryear before supermarkets replaced many small businesses. 

Ken writes:  This listing is produced not from historic documentation but from a septuagenarian’s memories of a situation that existed fifty years ago.  Hence, whilst it is confidently believed that what is presented is substantially correct, it cannot be denied that not only may there be some omissions but in fact  there may be shops that never actually existed – the mind can do funny things when looking back half a century.  Input from readers who may wish to correct or add to the information presented is welcomed. 

  

(Map by Ken Corbett)

SHOP IDENTIFICATION

 

1.      Maison de Luxe dance hall and reception area

2.      Dressmaker – Mrs Field (shop was part of Maison de Luxe building)

3.      Milk Bar – Aub and Rosa Morton (congregating point for early local teens)

4.      Authorised Newsagency – Collins and earlier Mileys

5.      Fruit and Vegetables – Grandisons (Dad had a handlebar-moustache, son was clean-shaven)

6.      Pastries and Cakes – Rutters

7.      Fruit and Vegetables – Wragges

8.      Firewood and Ice Merchant – James (office)

9.      Cigarette manufacturer- Turkish, Albanian or similar

10.  Barber – Albert Hodgkinson (soccer fanatic when the game was obscure in Australia)

11.  Milk Bar

12.  Grocer – Bullocks (later Moran and Cato)

13.  Wood Yard and Ice Making Plant

14.  Post  Office

15.  Real Estate Office – Jolly Wright and at one point, Hunts

16.  Jone’s Ladies and Gents Hairdressing (boy’s haircuts nine pence)

17.  Milk Bar – Hamilton’s (small icecream cone - one penny; large fudge cone – a halfpenny)

18.  Motor Garage – Withers and later Standard Cars Pty Ltd (now Seven Eleven)

19.  State Savings Bank of Victoria

20.  Bootmaker – Jack Holmlund

21.  Pharmacy – Gregory’s

22.  Milk Bar – (Ace Chewing Gum Dispenser which never worked)

23.  Newsagency – (not Authorised)

24.  Grocer – Mr Mac’s later Pat Morgan

25.  Milk Bar – Vaughan’s

26.  Fruit and Veg - (son Joe a doctor, John pharmacist, Felix St Kilda Footballer)

27.  Pharmacy – Miss Hesp

28.  Butcher – Smart’s

29.  Real Estate Agency – Hunts and then Ladies Hairdressing

30.  Duchey Library – Mrs Hume (kids read what she told them to, not what they wanted)

31.  Bootmaker

32.  Delicatessen  

33.  Haberdashery

34.  Hardware

35.  Opportunity Shop (previously Jones’s Hairdressing)

36.  Milliner

37.  Coffee Lounge (mysteriously and sinisterly curtained, seldom opened)