Ghosts, Miners, and Now Member Jungle: The Story of 87 Elder Street
Miners, boots, beers, maybe even ghosts and now Member Jungle. The Member Jungle office has officially moved to the historic 87 Elder Street, Lambton. This building was built in 1867, making it older than telephones, light bulbs, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and surprisingly and despite what the creaking in my knees would have you believe, me.
I know that if you’re in Europe, a 150-year-old building is baby numbers to you, but for a European building in Australia, 150 years is pretty old.
Seeing as Member Jungle has a new office for the first time in over a decade and that new office has a long and storied history, I thought I’d take this opportunity to explore a little bit of this slice of Newcastle history.
From Boarding House To Boot Factory To Member Jungle HQ
The new Member Jungle office was built in approximately 1867 to act as accommodation for the original Northumberland Hotel (1866 -1935).
While looking into this, I ended up getting distracted reading old newspapers from the time this building was built. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any mention of the office being built; however, I was able to find an advertisement from 24th November 1868 in The Newcastle Chronicle advertising accommodation in the building I am currently writing this from.
I was also able to find the announcement for the Northumberland Hotel opening from the 20th of July 1866. So, we know that our new building was built somewhere between those two points.
As that is fairly hard to read, here is what it says:
“Northumberland Hotel, Lambton.
John Dent begs to inform his friends residents at Lambton and the surrounding district that he has recently opened the above Hotel and stocked it with a choice assortment of Wines, Spirits, and Malt Liquors of the best quality, hoping to receive a fair share of public support.
Lambton, July 20, 1866.”
Today the Northumberland is still right next door to our new office. Despite John Dent no longer being the one who’s pouring pints and despite the fact that the original building was demolished and rebuilt in 1935, I can attest that the Northumberland Hotel does still have a “ choice assortment of Wines, Spirits, and Malt Liquors of the best quality”.
You may be saying, Piper, stop trying to butter up the pub next door in the hopes of getting cheaper drinks. And to that, I say, no. I’m a writer, it comes with the territory.
After our new office stopped being a place for miners to catch a few winks post-boozing it up, it became T M’Mullins boot factory in 1872. Boots were made and sold in the building; you could have gotten a pair of “Mens’ Pitt Boots” for five shillings and sixpence, a steal at twice the price.
A clipping of a newspaper article about the opening of T. McMullen’s Boots.
The last record I could find of T.McMullens Boots occupying this building was in December 1875. After that, I have a nearly 100-year blank spot where I have no idea what occupied this building. There may have been a Robert Douglas Gray operating as a solicitor in the 1950s, but to the best of my knowledge, he passed away in 1955.
As you can probably tell, I have become a little obsessed with finding out the history of this building, and I’ll probably keep digging into it when I have time and update this article if I find something. For now, though, this is all the history I have.
A photo of 87 Elder Street and the surrounding buildings circa 1902 approx.
Now, in 2025, approximately 158 years after 87 Elder was first built, Member Jungle has moved into the historic location. It needs a little tender love and care; the old sandstone is pretty worn in places, the garden needs some attention, and the attic is fairly creepy, complete with drawings that wouldn’t look out of place in Sinister.
Speaking of the creepy, there have been reports of ghosts haunting the old sandstone building and several others in the historic area of Lambton. In my opinion, there has never been any actual scientific evidence that ghosts exist, but I’m going into this with an open mind. Who knows, maybe after working in the office for a few months, I will become a true believer, I might even set up a pottery wheel and see what happens.
New Office But The Same Member Jungle
Despite the change of locations, Member Jungle will continue to do business as usual; nothing will change. There are even solar panels on the roof of the office, so we will continue to be able to minimise our reliance on the grid and continue supplying environmentally friendly membership management to clubs and associations just like you.
Before I wrap up, I just wanted to thank the National Library of Australia’s website Trove and Blooming History. These are both great resources that made digging into the history of the new office so much easier. Without them, this article would be about three sentences long.
For all of your membership management needs, check out our Learning Centre. The rest of the articles there are much more informative for clubs and associations than his one.
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