Anthony JJ Lucas
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Anthony John Jereos Lucas (Lekatsas) (1862-1946) was in influential Greek Australian businessman noted for his philanthropic activities and construction of numerous public and private buildings in Melbourne, Australia. Ultimately, Anthony Lucas became the Greek Consul General to Australia in 1921 and Consul in Melbourne in 1931-46.
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[edit] Early Years
Migrating with his brother Marino Lucas (Marinos Lekatsas) from his hometown of Exoghi on the Greek island of Ithaca in 1886, the two young men quickly began to build their fortunes.
In 1894 Lucas opened the Town Hall Café in Swanston Street, the main thoroughfare of Melbourne. Often employing Greek staff and spanning two floors, the cafe serviced over five hundred diners at any one time.
[edit] Prosperity
Initially residing on the top floor of the cafe, in 1928 Lucas moved to the a large property Yamala on the Mornington Peninsula. Here he retained the services of noted American architect Walter Burley Griffin to redesign the house and gardens.[1]
Lucas subsequently opened two more restaurants, the Paris Café, in Collins Street and the Vienna Café, (which later became the Café Australia on the site of what is now the Hotel Australia in Collins Street). These ventures prospered under Lucas' keen entrepreneurial skills.[2] Again for these projects, AJ Lucas utilised the services of Walter Burley Griffin.[3]
An even grander collaboration with the architect was the construction, in a partnership with the Phillips brothers, of the Capitol Theater in Melbourne. Housed within the ten-storey office building Capitol House the theatre was opened on 7th November 1924 and both are now registered with the Australian Heritage Commission, the National Trust and Heritage Victoria.
[edit] Religious and Ithacan Interests
Lucas helped found and was frequently the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Melbourne[4] and was also the President of the Ulysses Philanthropic Society of Melbourne (Antonis Lekatsas was the first president of the Ithacan Philanthropic Society from 1916 until 1923.[5]
[edit] War Effort
At the height of World War 2, Lucas organized a programme whereby Melbourne's Greeks donated a day's pay to the Greek war effort and was an avid supporter of the Lord Mayor's Hospital Appeal.
He personally donated £10,000 to a fund which he organized for Greek and British child war-victims and in 1939 was awarded the Golden Cross of Taxiarchon, an order initiated by Greece's King George I. In October 1944 a special service to commemorate his birthday and the coincident liberation of Athens was conducted in the Greek Orthodox Church in Victoria Parade.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Frankston City Heritage Study. http://www.frankston.vic.gov.au/fhs/stage1-vol-3/yamala.htm
- ^ Australia Hotel website with AJ Lucas reference: http://www.thakral.com.au/aoc/index.cfm?pid=16
- ^ Walter Burley Griffin Society webpage: http://www.griffinsociety.org/Lives_and_Works/a_melbourne.html
- ^ Greek Orthodox Community Melbourne: http://www.greekcommunity.com.au/index2.html
- ^ Ithacan Philanthropic Society: http://www.ithaca.org.au/ips_history.html
- ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography Online edition. Dedicated webpage: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100158b.htm
[edit] External links
- AJ Lucas photograph State Library of Victoria Historical Archives
- Vienna Cafe period photograph State Library of Victoria Historical Archives
- Capitol Theatre
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lucas, Anthony John Jereos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lekatsas |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Greek-Australian businessman and philanthropist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1862 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Exoghi, Ithaka, Greece |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1946 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Australia |
