Description

An Italianate-style mansion, the most notable feature of the building now housing the Tara Institute Buddhist Centre—apart from its external architecture, designed by noted architect Charles Webb—is its stunning floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows designed by artist Alan Sumner.

Located on Boonwurrung country, the building was originally a seven-roomed stone house built in 1854 by prominent stockbroker J.B Were. Charles Webb was commissioned to undertake alterations, completed by 1874.

In 1884, the house was bought by the Member of Parliament for Brighton, Thomas Bent, a market gardener who, through clever land speculation, rose to become a wealthy man and ultimately Premier of the State of Victoria from 1904-1909.

Since then, the building has had several owners and uses, including the Daughters of Charity, an order of nuns who ran a home and school there. Tara Institute was established as a Tibetan Buddhist teaching and meditation centre at the mansion in 1987.

What's On

Although there have been substantial alterations to the building, enough remains to see the sequence of ownership in the fabric of the building, and gain an understanding of its former glory.

The audience will hear interesting stories about Indigenous links to the land, and of past occupants, the architecture and the mansion as they are taken through the building.

Historian Adair Bunnett OAM will be presenting and overseeing other presenters.