La Mascotte Estate Preston

Regent Street & Myrtle Grove Preston

La Mascotte Estate was the name of a housing estate with land blocks facing onto Regent Street and Myrtle Grove in Preston. The name had already been used for estates in St Kilda and Oakleigh in the 1880s and is thought to be the French word for ‘mascot’ so may have been linked to good luck.  

In 1912 an advertisement in the Northcote Leader said that 15 ‘grand allotments’ would be for sale with land size of 55 x 128 feet or 43 x 130 feet. The terms were £1 deposit and monthly repayments of 10 shillings. The land was being sold by auctioneers McGeorge Bros. and Savage. An article in the Herald at the same time described the land as ‘on a beautiful slope of the hill…within 4 minutes’ walk from Regent railway station’ and anticipated that the remaining lots on the ‘delightful estate’ would be sold on the day. Blocks of land on the estate continued to be offered for sale over the next few years but possibly there was a slow uptake as by 1914 the terms had changed to ‘no deposit and no interest’ but still monthly repayments of 10 shillings.

Although land sales had taken place, street directories indicate that there were very few houses fronting onto Regent Street in this period and Myrtle Grove did not appear until 1924. This suggests that there may have been a delay in building due to the devastating effects of the First World War.  

Photographs show well-dressed people arriving on a double decker vehicle to attend a land sale at La Mascotte Estate when 37 allotments were being offered for sale.  

Carroll, Brian & Rule, Ian (1985). Preston: an Illustrated History. Preston: City of Preston
Forster, Harley W. (1968). Preston Lands and People. Melbourne: Cheshire. Sands and McDougall’s Melbourne and Suburban Directory 1864- 1974. Melbourne, Australia: Sands & McDougall
Forthcoming Auction. Herald (Melbourne, Vic: 1861 - 1954), Thursday 12 December 1912, page 4
Advertisement. Northcote Leader (Northcote, Vic: 1882 - ) Sat 14 December 1912 page 5
Advertisement. Age (Melbourne, Vic: 1854 - 1954), Saturday 8 February 1913, page 10
Advertisement. Preston Leader (Vic: 1914 - 1918), Saturday 16 May 1914, page 5