Now the administrative hub of the College, this space once echoed with prayer, music and laughter. From its beginnings as a grand ballroom in the Mentone Coffee Palace, to its transformation into the College Chapel and later a classroom, the office area carries the layers of Kilbreda’s history within its walls, a reminder of how every era leaves its own mark on the story of the College.
Long before it became the heart of College operations, this area was a place of quiet reflection and celebration, first as the College Chapel, and before that, as a ballroom filled with music and laughter.
From the College’s early days until 1964, this space served as the College Chapel. The altar once stood in the bay window where the Health Centre is now located, sunlight streaming through as students gathered for daily prayer. After the Chapel closed, the room took on new life as a Year 10 classroom, until the renovations of 1996–97 transformed it once again.
But its story stretches back even further, to the late 1800s, when this building was the grand Mentone Coffee Palace. The same room that now looks out toward the Mentone shopping centre was once the Coffee Palace ballroom, the social heart of the growing seaside town. Here, in the early 1890s, music filled the air as guests waltzed across polished floors, dressed in the finery of the boom era: women in bustled gowns, adorned with matching hats and gloves and men in tails or well-cut suits.
Historical records suggest that this room was among five leased to the Mentone Club, a private association that once sought (unsuccessfully) to obtain a liquor licence in 1889. The Club’s members read like a page from Victoria’s social register, among them Sir WJ Clarke, Mr James Bell MLC, and the Hon Matthew Davies, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. They promised that the conduct of their gatherings would always be impeccable.
The ballroom also hosted community celebrations, including the annual La Mascotte Club Ball. Newspaper accounts from 1895 describe one such evening when “dancing began at 8.00pm and was kept up with great spirit until 2.00am,” with fine music and “choice delicacies in the way of refreshments.”
Traces of those layers of history still linger here. The current office door once served as a rarely used external entrance when this was a classroom, while the main doorway sat at the base of the stairs. The foyer and adjoining “chair room” were music rooms in the 1990s, and in the Coffee Palace era, cloakrooms where guests might have left their coats before stepping into an evening of dance and delight.
From ballroom to Chapel, classroom to office, this space has always been a place of gathering, where people have come together in faith, learning and community for well over a century.