Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains
Miss S M (Sylvia Margaret) STIFE, Chemist
57 Rose St, Essendon
Business directories give this pharmacy address as 57 Rose St, but the current 57 Rose St is a brick residence - the same one shown in this photograph. The shop site is currently occupied by Wings Away. The products in the window seem to suggest a strong interest in baby care, but there was also the reliable seller, Kodak film. Courtesy of PROV VPRS 12800 P3 ADV018.
Sylvia Margaret Stiffe was born in Cashel, now Dookie South, in 1902. In 1922 Syvia M Stiffe was included in a published list of students who had passed the Intermediate Examination, in Melbourne, of the Pharmacy Examination. Her final examination was held on 3 December 1924, and her name was added to the Pharmaceutical Register on 14 January 1925.
Using the surname STIFE professionally, Sylvia was listed in City Directories living at 17 Lawson St, Moonee Ponds with her family. From 1924 until 1937 in Victorian Electoral Rolls, Sylvia was listed as a student, and never as a pharmacist, despite having been registered as a pharmacist in 1925. Possibly this was a quaint view of the Victorian Electoral Commission about professional women.
In 1930 and 1931, she was listed in Directories at 57 Rose St, Essendon, though her registration gives this address as early as 1925.
In 1933 and 1935 she was listed at 160 Buckley St, Essendon, which is on the corner of McPhail St.
In 1937 Sylvia married James John Black, and her name dropped from business directories. Her occupation in Electoral Rolls thereafter was always 'Home Duties'. Sylvia's entry in the Pharmaceutical Register for 1939 was annotated with the information that she was now known as Mrs S M Black, and her address was 13 Ward St, Ormond, which seems to have been a residential address. The same address appeared in the 1944 Register.
Sylvia Margaret Black died in 1960 aged 58.