In Search of the Meisels' House Part 1

The Meisels Grand House Part 2 

In Search of the Meisels' House Part 1

Last issue, I wrote about the majestic Meisels (pronounced My- sells) house and how I was going to see if we could find any trace of its existence. We picked our day to perfection. A midweek day on a pleasant spring morning. I had my trusty assistant, Madelyn, who has the sharpest eyesight of anyone I know; her ability to find birds and animals in the bush is uncanny.  I was hoping she would find some treasures on the overgrown plot in our quest for suburban archaeology.

The only known existing picture of the Meisels property.
This picture has been edited to remove people.
Photo courtesy Gary Pope Archives.

Using a photo of the Meisels' house (the only one in existence at this point in time), a map of the old estate and a collection of Gary Pope’s memories from his childhood, which inspired this whole expedition. We were feeling confident.  I knew that the house sat on Lot 158 on Mountain Highway, and it bordered the creek that flowed under the road and ran down into the Ravine. Gary said the entrance that had a long slate rock path was the only entry point through a retaining wall that fronted the property, as there was no driveway. Gary said this entrance most likely aligned with an existing gate on the opposite side of the road.

This is not my first trip into this estate, but I was surprised by how easy it was to enter the block. Most of the land on this side of the park has steep batters rising from the road. As we walked further into the site, there was evidence of the removal with pieces of brickwork and bits of slate embedded in the dirt. One thing I discovered with other site explorations I had done, the clearing of the houses was far from absolute.

Lucky for us, there weren’t many gum trees to navigate, so it was an easy walk. I did notice a flat section to our right and made a note to check that area out. There was still hope we might find evidence of the inground pool in our journey. We continued to follow the path upwards, and within a few minutes, we hit the jackpot. About 25 metres up from the road, we found several complete stairs under a copse of trees. Judging by the ground cover, they had not been disturbed for some time. I honestly felt like I was the first person to discover them. Gary said that the original stairway path had landings about every 3 metres, and each one would have a concrete bench where people could enjoy the view. He recalled how he would see people seated up and down the path, drinks in hand, socialising. The path itself was only one brick course per level high with segmented flat rocks (which I will refer to as slate) on top. Each tread was about a man-sized step & half wide.

Madelyn and I cleaned them up to get a better view, and kudos to the workman who laid them. These steps looked beautiful and wouldn’t look out of place in an Edna Walling garden. They made it easier to imagine Gary’s recollection of all the people enjoying their afternoon gathering as I looked towards the highway below.

While clearing the steps, I also noticed a moss-covered section of brickwork, which, when we consulted our photo, we surmised may be part of a brick pillar that rose up next to the steps close to where they passed the house.  It was then that I saw a flat area eight to ten metres behind us. Gary said the pathway went all the way to the back of the house, and that is where the main entrance was. At first, I thought it was a place to park a car, until I realised that the block had no driveway. Everyone parked in the street or across the road. This flat area must have been where the back of the house ended. There was a section three metres by 10 metres with a stacked stonework retaining wall with a partial brick structure, which could only be a BBQ. As it had been laid and had rotating brick courses, there was no way this was built after the house was demolished. 

A small terrace for smaller gatherings, perhaps? This is also, according to Gary,  where his Nana, Stella Patrone, cut through from her house on Alamain Avenue to do her housekeeping work on weekdays after the weekend gatherings. The area looked like it hadn’t had any human visitors for years.

Close up of the BBQ

I was starting to think the location of the block, so close to the corner and having no real area to walk, was not used by many people to trek through. I also noticed there seemed to be a lot less general rubbish on this block compared to others I’d visited.

The area where the BBQ is situated

pieces of the BBQ grate

Another thing that stood out was the ease it was to move around on foot, though it still had the steep gradient in places, mainly where the house stood, and other parts towards the front next to the creek and the rear area. Where the BBQ was, it was very level and with a mow, could easily be transformed into lawn. The area to the right was comparatively less dense with tree growth than the creek side, but there were lots of wild grass and small bushes. Despite the ground cover down in this area, it looked surprisingly level.

Where most of the National Park side of the road heading up to Sassafras was steep, I think I had figured out why there was a flat, relatively easy-to-access entry point on the Meisel block. Especially for a plot that had no original driveway.

To be concluded.......

FOR A VIDEO OF THE SEARCH LINK HERE TO YOUTUBE

PART ONE

BACK STORY LINKS

The Meisels’ Grand House.

 The Meisels’ Grand House.

Rediscovering the New Mystic Lake Estate Part 1 of 3

The New Mystic Lake estate, just southeast of The Basin Triangle in what is now part of the Dandenong Ranges National Park, was a failed real estate venture in the early 1950s. One of the problems with the campaign to sell the land was the fact that the brochure didn’t quite match the terrain. Hundreds of plots of land were mapped out in nice rectangular blocks, but in reality, they were on the side of a mountain with an almost 30-degree fall over some parts. It’s been recorded that some people bought land sight unseen, only to come to view and break down in tears. Not many plots were sold, but some purchasers saw the benefits of the area and decided to build. Mind you, a few never even made it that far. Occasionally coming up and pitching a tent, then eventually not returning.

The only known photo of Lot 158 Stella Patrone
is on the far left. Andre Meisels to her immediate
right and Gary Pope in front of her.

However, there were some who embraced the area. I’ve already written about the Pope residence that was built by William & Yola Pope as a weekender and a permanent residence for Yola’s mother, Stella Patrone, an independent woman who enjoyed the simple pleasures and isolation of the area.

Lack of services such as electricity, telephone, and sewer made permanent living a bit of a deterrent, but those who did build made comfy weekender-style homes with tank water and kerosene fridges & wood stoves. There was one house that stood out from them all, services and location be damned.

That was the Meisels House. Owned by Ondre (a.k.a Andre or Andrew) and his wife Jolly, it was used as their weekender, where they loved to entertain.

This was on Mountain Highway, situated between the bend where the bus terminates and Inverness Avenue. The house may have looked like a modern and compact version of the grand old houses that were built all over the Dandenongs around the turn of the century.

With a retaining wall adjacent to the road with a six-foot-wide stairway leading some 25 metres up to the two-story brick abode, the property frontage was set back from the road by such a distance that cars could park at 90-degree angles to the road in front of the retaining wall.  As you entered the property to the right and parallel to the road was an inground swimming pool, complete with paving and another retaining wall.

 

The bottom part of the structure was a large games room, and above was an open entertaining area with a lounge and a kitchen. Facing the street was a huge verandah which could comfortably accommodate 40 people, looking up at the recently installed TV towers on Mount Dandenong. The house wasn’t so much a holiday house but more like a day retreat, as there was very limited space for overnight guests.

The house was also special in other regards, as it boasted two water tanks - one that had a heating system for hot water that supplied the house, and something almost unheard of in the whole estate, a flushing toilet. Mr. Meisels owned a very successful retail store in Bourke Street in the city called American Tailors, named so because back in the 1950s, almost everyone associated style and fashion with the United States. You only have to think of movie stars to get where that idea was formed. And it worked; it allowed him to build this amazing house. The aforementioned Stella Patrone was the housekeeper for Mr Meisels, and each Monday after he had large family/friend gatherings there. She would cut through the back of the property from her home diagonally behind on Alamein Avenue (now track), which proves she was a tough old lady, as the path was extremely steep and uneven.

Ms Patrone also lived above and diagonally across from the other constructed house on Mountain Highway. This was owned by The Robinsons, whose home was of weatherboard and fibro construction, built so that it also sat high on the block due to the steep gradient. Next door to where their house once stood is a set of stairs on a flat piece of cleared land that still exists today. This was done by Les and Shirley Yardley, who lived in the Robinsons’ house when they retired to Upwey. They also lived/rented the Meisels’ home for a time while they were intending to build. The cleared land and steps were all they managed. Now the steps are the unofficial memorial of the failed venture, both theirs and the New Mystic Lake Estate.

Mr. Meisels died in 1978. The business he started still exists today in Bourke St., albeit in a new location and with new owners.

Behind the scenes, the estate was never going to endure. After the 1968 bushfires, the Government was actively buying back houses in the area, and this was completed in 1984. The Meisels house was on the extreme boundary of the new Dandenong National Park, and by then all traces of housing and non-native flora were removed. The bulldozers came in and flattened everything.

Or did they?

One wonders if the pool was removed or just filled in? As I have discovered in past explorations of the old housing estate, they weren’t as thorough as I first thought.

I was going back up to Mister Meisels’ house and seeing what I could find.

For previous New Mystic Lake history click HERE

Rediscovering The New Mystic Lake Estate 40 years gone.

 Rediscovering The New Mystic Lake Estate 40 years gone.

In June and July 2022, I wrote about a failed housing estate near where I lived and was fascinated enough to explore the area. This led to the introduction of Gary Pope, a local whose family built a holiday house that was occupied by his grandmother, an amazing woman, Steea Patrone.

I traveled up the abandoned roads (now tracks) and found a whole new history I was unaware of.

I'm proud to say that this story won the BEST HISTORY STORY in the Community Newspapers Association of Victoria 2023

Read about it here:

 PART ONE

PART TWO

Then in July and August 2023, I returned to the area, and I blogged about the reclaimed homes in the Dandenongs, thanks to Gary Pope, whose Grandmother was a resident there and whom he spent many a happy holiday exploring and enjoying whilst growing up.

The house and the whole estate were reclaimed by the State Government and returned to their natural state as a National Park.

You can read about Gary's memories and my attempt to find traces of the old residence.

You can check out and catch up via these links

Mystic Mountain Memories

PART ONE

PART TWO

I returned in 2025 because it was the area that kept giving up secrets, not only by my own research and exploring but thanks to the diligent record keeping of Gary Pope, who, like me, had rekindled a sense of wonder and started to search for those people he once knew in that sparsely populated area.

First, I wanted to learn more about the Meisels House, the grand home of Andre and Jolly Meisel, a tailor who built his weekender there and had many parties. He hired Stella Patrone to be his housekeeper, cleaning the property for the next weekend's gathering.

What follows in the next three blogs is the story of the Meisel House and my search for any trace that might exist, and from what I found, a desire to seek out more of the reclaimed properties for more history and more artifacts.

YOU CAN START HERE WITH PART ONE: The Meisels Grand House