a confectionery factory
The Avon loop wasn't just a residential area, there were small businesses scattered through the neighbourhood too.
Perhaps the most delightful of these was a confectionery factory, established by Salvatore Lezza (a French-speaking Corsican) at 245 Kilmore Street. Salvatore bought the Kilmore Street property in 1882 and established his factory there. He ran the factory while his (nameless) wife ran their shop in Fisher's building in the central city. The Kilmore Street property had fruit trees, but evidently these weren't sufficient for Salvatore's needs, as he occasionally advertised for more fruit for the jams he made.
Disaster struck in January 1884
On Sunday 27 January, the factory caught fire and the building was completely gutted. Salvatore was arrested for arson, a charge that was later dismissed. The factory was in a building attached to the two-storied house. Confectionery production seems to have resumed after the fire, but the Lezzas put the property up for sale later in the year.
Other businesses in the loop included a general sort of a store on the corner of Barbadoes and Kilmore streets, first operated by Mary and William Stoupe, then by Robert Painter, whose stepdaughters looked after the drapery goods sold there. Robert's (second) wife Caroline ran a boarding house next door to Hans Jensen on Kilmore Street. Hans himself may have had a store on his property, and in the late 1890s there was a store at 32 Bangor Street, built by Henry Alexander McCormick and subsequently operated by Mary Butcher. By this time, there was a chemist, the Avon Dispensary, on the corner of Kilmore and Barbadoes streets, run by Robert Painter's son - also Robert.
And of course there was the local pub, the Star and Garter and, in the middle of the 20th century, Oakley's pumice works.
