[3] After being owned by many notable families, ownership was transferred to the State Government of Victoria’s Ministry of Education in 1956[4] and was used purely as an all girls residence for country students enrolled at Larnook Domestic Arts Teachers College and in later years regional secondary students from the Victorian College of the Arts until 1997 when it was then vacated and subsequently fell into disrepair.

The rapid economic boom of the Victorian gold rush peaked during the 1880s, by which time Melbourne had become one of the wealthiest cities in the world,[5] and the largest after London.

[6] During a visit in 1885 by English journalist George Augustus Henry Sala coined the phrase “Marvelous Melbourne”, an apt description of a city which had become one of the finest examples of Victorian architectural grandeur in the British Empire[7] It was in this environment that the young Edward Yencken (1854-1932), established himself as one of Melbourne's leading wholesalers and suppliers of paint, hardware, glass, wallpaper and timber.

Yencken commenced his career in the trade by joining the establishment of Brooks, Robinson & Co. Ltd, Melbourne's leading wholesalers and suppliers of paint, hardware and glass in 1871;[8] in 1882, having reached managerial level at Brooks, Robinson & Co, he left to open his own business and departed for Europe in March 1882 with the clear goal of establishing his own agents and contacts.

- wallpapers; William Harland & Co - varnish; Hamilton and Co –brushwares, Lindcrusta-Walton – wall covering[11] and the Belgian firm of Rene Verbest Lamal – marble flooring and chimney pieces.

[18] After Wilson came John Turnbull, Western district and Queensland pastoralist, the Director of the English and Australian Pastoral and Investment Association, race horse owner and breeder.

Comedy King won the Melbourne Cup in 1910 and in doing so became the first foreign bred horse to achieve this feat, defeating both Trafalgar and Apple Pie in the process.