My grandparents came out from England with three children in 1885, and lived around the North Carlton area all their lives. (Seven more children were born here). They were well into their seventies when they died and all their children married from this area; a few still lived around here when they passed away.
We came here in 1939, in March '39, the year of the Second World War. I lived away for a while, and we came back in 1952 with two daughters. Mum and Dad had rented a house for fourteen years. The owner wanted to sell it and we wanted to get back to Carlton; North Carlton had always been our homeland. Five years later my husband died of cancer. I had Mum and Dad with me and my single brother. And then in 1959 I married my second husband, Irving Plotkin whom I had known for 23 years. He came here in 1935 from Poland with his parents, and has lived ever since all around Carlton. He went to school at Princes Hill, long before it was a high school. I had a third daughter and they all went through Princes Hill, from Baby Health Centre, to Kindergarten, to Primary School and High School. I have been a member of the Princes Hill Primary and High School Mothers' Clubs. I was secretary at the Primary School for years, from the late fifties to the early sixties. The younger two went right through from Baby Health Centre to H.S.C. and went to University; they did well.
The changes mainly, I would say, would be in the homes. There are lots of beautiful old homes that have gone from here; they were absolutely wonderful old homes. There was one a Mr Gregory owned, which is now flats, a magnificent old home, with these beautiful big marble fire places, and the rooms that held not one but two glorious grand pianos. You'd have to see it to believe it, such a magnificent home with a wrought iron fence, and the depth of it, just to see it was really unbelievable. And where that school is right across the street was another beautiful home. It became a residence for Jewish migrants from the other side of the world, because it was owned by a Jewish family. Jewish migrants would be looking for homes to live in before they were able to get established in a place of their own. At that time nobody tried to stop the houses being pulled down.
Years ago the community was mainly the migrant Jewish people, from Poland, Russia, some from Palestine. The Greek hall in Lygon Street was the kadimah. There was a big Jewish library, a hall to dance in if they had functions there, and a theatre, where they produced Jewish plays all in Hebrew or in Yiddish. Over the road was the Peretz school, (before it became the Greek school), the Yiddish school. Our children went there for their Sunday language class. Over the years different people moved in and a lot of the Jewish people moved out to other suburbs, some over to the other side of the river, a lot of them congregated in St. Kilda and around Elsternwick. But at first the majority came to North Fitzroy, Carlton, North Carlton, Brunswick, all within easy distance of each other so they would be able to communicate in their own language, until they got to know other people. My grandfather was one of the original founders of the Carlton Synagogue, on the corner of Neil and Rathdowne Streets. He was on the Board. On the corner of Kay and Canning Streets was Monash House, which was the club room for the young Jewish community. We had our Sunday night dances and our committee meetings there. It was called Monash House after the late John Monash who was Jewish, one of the generals from the First World War.
Carlton would be one of the nicest communities, because of all the different ethnic groups in it. I have so many different neighbours and friends, from all cultures; we're all friends without distinction.
I have a friend over the road whom I met at kindergarten when two of our children were in the same grade. To this day if anything happens to her, or if anything happens to us, we look after each other. And I've got Italian neighbours, who have been our neighbours for twenty two years; they're like my children and grandchildren. We have lots of friends that our kids grew up with and we were all on Mothers' Clubs together. Many of them are still living around here. I have a Greek son in law, an Australian son in law, and a Polish son in law. Our children were all brought up Jewish, but now I have an Australian Church of England son in law, I have a Polish Jewish boy, and a Greek Orthodox. They are all wonderful to us.
We have never been involved in political types of things, although we're interested in what goes on and whenever something comes up we like to know. Once we went around to the Library for a meeting about this particular street, because a block of flats had been sold to a developer who wanted to make a motel out of it. The residents all around signed a petition that they did not want Drummond Street to have a motel. We won that fight.
There were never any riots or carryings on between different nationalities. Carlton would be one of the nicest communities, because of the different ethnic groups in it. I have had so many different neighbours and friends, from all sorts of cultures, and we're all friends without distinction. I can only speak as I find it, and as my mother and father found it, and my friends all around me.