Pictures from the Past of the Porter Family

A special display showing Newcastle life in the early twentieth century as lived by the Porter family of King Street.

The Porter family lived in this family home from 1910 following Florence and Herbert's wedding. Sadly, Herbert died in 1919 from Spanish flu but by then they had had two daughters, Ella and Hazel.

Family post cards and holiday snaps from the Miss Porter's House collection show Newcastle street scenes and Hunter Valley landmarks. They tell the many stories of Florence and her daughters Ella and Hazel, who lived in the home until the death of Hazel in 1997 when she bequeathed it to the National Trust (NSW).

See Herbert celebrating an Eight Hour Day Procession on one of the Porter shop's delivery carts, and enjoying watermelon with friends. Recall one of the many Cottage Creek floods, common in the early twentieth century and which still inundate Newcastle West today. Spot the Gas Works Office, all that remains in 2022 of the nineteenth century Steel Street Gas Works which dominated the view from Florence and Herbert's bedroom window. Find Florence's washing line and see Ella and Hazel Porter at Cooks Hill School and posing for one of their first studio photographs.

A picture really is worth a thousand words and visitors can relive days gone by in Pictures from the Past.