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Perhaps Hawthorn's most famous building, James and Isabella Palmer's "Burwood". It was built c1851 on land bought at the Crown sales in 1845/6, the Palmer's moving from an earlier "Burwood" in Richmond. James Palmer was a Mayor of Melbourne, first Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Council and later its President, on the Hawthorn Municipal Committee and involved with the establishment of Christ Church and the Hawthorn West Primary School. It was extended and altered at various times and later tenanted by Mark Collier 1873, Rev. Charles Strong 1992, Robert Cochrane 1883, later Joseph Reed, architect, names "Amoe". It was saved from demolition by politician and philanthropist Sir William McPherson, whose family occupied and later owned it, called "Invergowrie" and eventually gave it as a Homecrafts Hostel 1934, a few years after his death. It was later the headquarters of the Victorian Post Secondary Education Commission until 1992.

James Palmer (Image: Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria)	McPherson children in front of Invergowrie.