Many of Footscray’s most interesting buildings were designed in the 20s and 30s by Jewish architect Joseph Plottel. the history of these buildings gives us a fascinating window into local and global politics of the era

Plottel was born in Yorkshire in 1883, bounced around the Anglosphere a bit, and eventually settled in Melbourne in 1906. One of his first major projects was the Williamstown Municipal Offices designed in 1914 https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/15055 

The triangular gable you can see is actually attached to the adjoining Town Hall, a more straightforwardly neoclassical design by another architect in the late 1920s. The whole complex was built on the site of the former Ferguson Road Chinese market gardens

Incidentally, Chinese market gardens in Williamstown date back to the mid-nineteenth century and were forcibly moved from the Ferguson St site in 1911ish to make way for development. So a very long history there

Another early Plottel project was the Michaels store on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale st in the Melbourne CBD, built in 1916 — initially a chemist, but like many chemists of the era also sold cameras, which eventually became the primary business https://michaels.com.au 

In 1915 Plottel married Dr Rachel Gross, a specialist in skin conditions and secretary of the Women's Medical Society of Victoria. the couple settled in St Kilda. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/138703928

This would have been a Jewish wedding. It was common at this time in the Anglo-Jewish community to Anglicise Jewish words and names -- Rabbi Jacob Danglow was also known as Rev John Danglow. More about Danglow here: http://stkildashule.org.au/past-rabbis/rabbi-danglow/

Footscray in the 1910s had a small but thriving Jewish community dating back to the Leviens, owners of the first liquor license in Footscray, given in 1839 for the Victoria Hotel on the corner of Bunbury and Maribyrnong St (demolished a couple decades after).

The Footscray Jewish community was very connected to the broader Melbourne Jewish community. Also, there were a number of Jewish industrialists who lived outside Footscray but had factories there -- this was due to regulations prohibiting "noxious trades" on freshwater rivers.

The Maribyrnong river, which is brackish, was not protected by these regulations. Thus, by the 1880s, most heavy industry in Melbourne had relocated to sites on the Maribyrnong or the Yarraville Maribyrnong-Yarra junction.

Thus, Joseph Plottel would have been socially connected to the Jewish business/industry community in Footscray and Yarraville. In any case, he got a lot of work from them, and it's this that we'll look at now

The earliest reference I can find to Plottel’s work in Footscray is in 1913, when he was commissioned to design a new glucose extraction plant by the Maize Product Company, a Footscray kosher grain processor https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196238285

Also by Maize Products, from 1914: Dandy Starch. the monocle kills me https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/52b111f22162ef03680593a1

The Williamstown Town Hall commission really raised Plottel’s profile and he started getting major projects like the St Kilda Synagogue (commissioned 1924). Note the arches, which would become something of a trademark for Plottel https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/3467 

It is at this point I have to issue a devastatingly humiliating correction: Plottel did *not* design the Olympic Tyre factory. I was really sure I’d read that he had but it was another 30s architect, J Raymond Robinson. Robinson is also interesting but more on him later

I did think it was a stylistic departure! Moving on

I did also wonder why Plottel had this lone industrial commission in the West from a non-Jewish businessman! that explains that

in 1924 Plottel also designed the Newport Masonic Hall. last I heard it was possibly getting demolished? any updates on that? https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/15129