Find Me Friday #2

Ok, it’s Saturday, so obviously it’s time for this week’s Find Me Friday, and the answer to last week’s puzzle. My excuse – I’ve been away for a few days and have taken lots of photos. Enough to fill the next two or three or four posts.

So, where is this? The number 15.

One person was brave enough to have a guess as to the identity of this building. Thanks for playing along Kanerva.

The building is 15 Murray Street in Hobart, also known as the Executive Building, and it houses various Government Ministers and Departments.

I haven’t been able to find much about the history of this building. The Executive Building itself was completed in 1988, and I just realised I didn’t take a picture of the building itself. I’m more interested in the façade of the building that the Executive Building replaced.

There is some more information and pictures about the Executive Building on this website (http://www.emporis.com/building/executivebuilding-hobart-australia). At 40 metres tall (11 floors) it’s one of Hobart’s tallest buildings.

15 Murray Street appears to have been the address of the Mail Exchange Building for some period, which might be what the façade is. I also found a reference to it having been used for an art exhibition in 1983, and apparently it hadn’t been the Mail Exchange Building for some time by then.

The only other reference I can find to the address is that it was once the home of Charles Grace Greig in 1867-68. According to www.launcestonfamilyalbum.org.au Charles Greig was born in Hobart in 1834 and he was the first pupil enrolled at The Hutchins School. He took over his father’s tailoring business in Hobart after returning from overseas. Whether he operated out of 15 Murray Street isn’t clear. His family moved to Launceston in 1873, where he set up his own tailoring business. He died in 1897.

The thing with this façade is that I’ve seen it almost every day for the past 8 years, and it only recently occurred to me that it actually used to be an entire building.

Talk about slow on the uptake.

If you know any more about 15 Murray Street and the building that once was, please let me know. I’d love to find out more.

And so to this week’s Find Me Friday . . . where in Hobart is this?

Check back next week for the answer!