The Sketchbook also tells of the Royal Terrace, pictured here in 1966, probably completed in 1858 despite the 1854 engraved in its stone. So it is two years shy of 150 years old. The Sketchbook says:
“When Royal Terrace was built in Nicholson Street at the height of the gold rush it was a most fashionable address, partly because the terrace was one of the most imposing of its kind then standing, and partly because it lay so close to the city.
Sir John O’Shannassy, three times premier of Victoria, found it ideally placed, being handy to the Parliament building nearby in Spring Street. At about the same time Nicholas Chevalier, a painter of Franco-Russian origin, resided there, conducting a studio where he became Melbourne’s best known portrait artist, until he departed with Prince Alfred for London in 1868, commissioned to undertake a series of royal portraits. Oddly, Chevalier is best known today for his splendid engravings and watercolours of the Victorian countryside.
Perhaps the most colourful tenant was Dr L. L. Smith, whose range of interests and involvements seemed endless. A Member of Parliamnet as well as amedical practitioner, and later Lord Mayor of MElbourne, he ran what would be considered today a fairly unorthodox medical practice, selling a Medical Almanac which claimed to contain remedies for almost every known complaint.”