Emily McPherson College, Educational institution in Melbourne central business district, Australia
Emily McPherson College is a white building on Russell Street in Melbourne's central business district, combining simplified Neo-Grec and Beaux-Arts architectural details on its facade. It now forms part of the RMIT University campus as Building 13, housing the Graduate School of Business and other teaching spaces.
The building opened in 1927, funded by a donation from Sir William McPherson, who named it after his wife Lady Emily. It received the Victorian Architecture Medal in 1930 and is now listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
The building was one of the few places in Australia where women could earn formal qualifications in cooking, nutrition, and dressmaking. Some original interior details still reflect how the space was once arranged to support that kind of hands-on training.
The building stands in Melbourne's central business district and is easy to reach on foot from nearby public transport stops. As it is an active university building, some areas inside may not be open to the general public.
The building holds the Emily McPherson Collection, an archive of old cookbooks and documents from the early days of domestic science education in Australia. It is one of the few surviving records of how that field took shape in the country.
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