James McAlpine Tait, as owner and editor of the Collingwood Advertiser and Observer, could be described as the most powerful and resonant voice of early Collingwood. Many locals considered him the ‘Voice of Collingwood’. He was forthright in his views until his death, aged 83, in December 1911. 

Collingwood-born Benjamin William Tapner was an active participant in the Abbotsford and Clifton Hill community as an architect, member of the congregations of St Philip’s and St Andrew’s churches, and Mayor and councillor. Having earlier lost his son in the Great War, he also designed the Soldiers Memorial Hall, (named on completion the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Hall), which still stands in Hoddle Street. His photograph, in mayoral robes, hangs in the Collingwood Town Hall.

Marcus and his son Samson conducted a pawnbrokers’ business in Smith Street. It has claims to be one of the longest-running businesses in the shopping street, since it apparently existed from 1858 until the mid twenties. Marcus was an Austrian-born Jew and married his French wife in Paris, where he was occupied as either a pawnbroker or jeweller.

Terry was one of Melbourne’s notable nineteenth century architects and left Victoria an outstanding legacy of banks and ecclesiastical buildings. He spent the last years of his life at Campbellfield near the Yarra, which he rented from local manufacturer Henry ‘Soapy’ Walker.

Ella Tolhurst was the youngest daughter of Henry Tolhurst, an architect who was the surveyor and engineer for the City of Collingwood. The family moved into Clarke Street Abbotsford in the 1880s. Living in a substantial house with a tennis court, the four daughters were well occupied with home duties and social engagements among their many connections in the district, while the two surviving sons pursued careers in the law and surveying. Ella, however, broke away from the life lived by her three elder sisters to forge a professional career.

Henry E Tolhurst was an architect who was appointed Collingwood city surveyor and engineer in 1883.  Tolhurst continued his practice as an architect while working for the council and was responsible for some notable Collingwood buildings. These included the east aisle of St Joseph’s Church in Otter Street, and the Shamrock Brewery in Victoria Street, a bi-chrome brick building, since demolished, whose striking appearance probably once rivalled the Yorkshire Brewery. A somewhat plainer building, but typical of Collingwood industry, was Whybrow’s shoe factory in Stafford Street.

Charles was one of the sons of Henry E Tolhurst, Collingwood city surveyor and engineer. The family lived in Frankfurt House, a two-storey bluestone house in Clarke St with a tennis court and large garden. By 1888 Charles was regularly advertising his Queen Street practice in partnership with McFarlane in the local paper. This was the same year he was initiated into the Masonic Earl of Carnarvon Lodge. In 1896 the firm became Tolhurst and Druce (which still exists in 2016 under the name Tolhurst Druce and Emerson).

When Collingwood was the capital of Australia’s footwear industry, the Trescowthick family were a prominent part of the local trade.  Ivor Trescowthick was the nephew of the prominent boot manufacturer, Charles Trescowthick. Ivor started his own shoe factory, not far from his uncle’s, in 1928 and later started the Julius Marlow brand, still sold today.

When Charles Trescowthick died at the age of 79 he was referred to as the ‘oldest boot and shoe manufacturer in the state’.  Son of Cornish migrants, Trescowthick was born in Ballarat East. He moved to Melbourne and in 1883 began his apprenticeship with James and McGan in George Street, Fitzroy. He soon set up his own business and was actively engaged in boot manufacturing until the time of his death.