MENTONE thru the YEARS

We've lived in Mentone for close on thirty years now. When we moved in we were in our 30s and the people across the road were the old folks (as we will be in the next decade) in the street. They made us feel very welcome.
Before they built there, they said the block of land was occupied by an old humpie, a makeshift house that a hermit lived in.
Our street runs off a main thoroughfare of three lanes either way. It also has a service road either side of the highway. I remember as a young fella that this service road was then a dirt track.
At one time the famous Beach Road where 1000s of cyclists train over the weekend was just a dirt, or sand track.
What am I trying to say here - well over the years, there's been a lot of changes in Mentone, some good and some not so good. We've lost a lot of great architecture in the cause of progress. The Mentone Theatre is gone, along with the skating rink. The old station signal box is no more.
We do however have some very nice cafe's, good coffee shops and some specialty food shops now. We had a hardware, timber yard where I purchased many of the renovation materials we needed for our new home. This business lost its customers as the huge Bunnings store moved into the area. It became a gym and now a multi-level complex of shops and apartments is being built. Things change.......

Todays post consists of photos of what Mentone used to look like over the years.



Mentone Post Office - no longer.



Mentone Theatre - no longer.



Mentone railway signal box - no longer.



Mentone Recreational Hall - no longer.



Mentone Skating Rink - no longer.



1951 and the Mentone Theatre is the very large building to the left. We live across the main highway and I can just pick out our house which was built in 1929. The original owners of our house most probably walked across the road to see the greats of the silver screen.



Possibly taken in the 50s, this is Mentone shopping village. The building in the background with the tower was originally the Mentone Coffee Palace, now Kilbreda Ladies College.
I love the old signs on the shops - Barnes honey, Robur tea and further down, the Herald newspaper outside the Mentone newsagency - The Hearald was the afternoon paper with The Sun being the morning newspaper. Both have joined to become one. At the time, Melbourne had three main newspapers, The other two were the Age and the Argus.



The Mentone Hotel is and always has been a unique landmark of our suburb. Several renovations has seen it survive the many Hotels on Beach Road that no longer exist or have been turned into apartments now.



A very early photo of Beach road when it was just a bush track




Mentone Beach 1929, the year our house was built. On the foreshore is the Mentone sea baths and just to the left is the impressive Mentone Hotel.

Wednesday's post - Two days in Paris 

Mentone on a Winter's Sunday Morning

Mentone Village has several cafes where a relaxing coffee can be had while watching the world go by.

It's been sometime since we did something on our Mentone village. When I say village, it's really a suburb but with a village feel. I believe that in the early days of Mentone it really was a village with community activities and people knew each other. Today I saw some of that activity where people were having the odd chin-wag while going about their Sunday morning business. The few cafes we have in Mentone village seemed to be doing good trade for breakfast as I walked by their windows.

We've lived here since 1982 and occasionally we also meet familiar faces while shopping - it's a comfortable feeling.

MENTONE RAILWAY STATION

As shown in the sign, our station was established in 1882 and brought day trippers from Melbourne to enjoy the beach or the horse racing at the now defunct Mentone Racecourse.

KILBREDA COLLEGE

Kilbreda College started life as a Coffee House - It retains much of its 1880s charm.

MENTONE GRAND HOMES

During the late 1800s when Mentone was being established, many stately homes were built that still exist today - some have been demolished to make way for new homes and some have taken on new identities.

This home is now a medical centre where previously is was a boarding home.

This stately home is now host to the Mentone RSL (returned soldiers) and most likely owned most of the surrounding land. Its been a while since we have been here for a meal, we must try it again soon.

These two homes have been restored from a derelict state. We had in fact looked at one of these and thought it would be too much work to improve. It's good to see them take on a new life rather than be replaced by a more modern home.

CHURCHES of MENTONE

Churches of different denominations hide amongst the houses of Mentone. In my late morning photographic travels I didn't see much activity on this particular Sunday.

AND THEN THERE'S THE BEACH!!!

That's why we live here.

This is the location of the old Mentone sea baths. Storms had damaged it over the years and it fell into disrepair and finally demolished - our beach is used all year round with a changing community need. Winter brings people walking their dogs and summer of course brings out the sun worshipers. With summer comes the true blue Aussie Life Saver.

No people - well it is a cold windy winter's morning but look at that view.

Hello, there is a hardy soul out jogging with his dog - and in shorts!

Well I hope you enjoyed our little walk together around Mentone this morning, I did.
Pop in for a squizz next Wednesday when we reminisce our travels from France into Italy.