Odd buildings - Melbourne, Australia

hi there, long time listener first time caller as they say..........

What prompted me to post this is that i have noticed a number of "masonesque" buildings within close proximity of each other in the city, to get straight to the point they are:

1. Building with stone writing under edge of roof saying : "Headquarters independent order of rechabites"

2. Shopfront style building with one way windows, mason emblem and sign saying " united order of free gardeners"

and,

3. Building with painted writing near roof saying "the power behind the power" . This doesnt appear to have any relevance to the business on the ground floor.

Short of knocking on the front door of no.2 i havent been able to find any dirt on these societies. For any australians all these buildings are located on elizabeth st in the city near the large roundabout. If you were on foot with the exception of no.2 you would not notice the writing on the others.

I know Melbourne has a lot of interesting history with its buildings, but the close proximity of these three to each other and the fact that 2 seems to be a functioning "headquarters" has had me curious for a while.

Has anybody heard of any of these orders/groups before?

cheers.....

Originally posted by eldritch

1. Building with stone writing under edge of roof saying : "Headquarters independent order of rechabites"

www.nzetc.org...

Originally posted by eldritch
2. Shopfront style building with one way windows, mason emblem and sign saying " united order of free gardeners"

freemasonry.bcy.ca...

Originally posted by eldritch

3. Building with painted writing near roof saying "the power behind the power" . This doesnt appear to have any relevance to the business on the ground floor.

[...]

Has anybody heard of any of these orders/groups before?

cheers.....

Err, google had ...
...but I'll admit that I'm stumped on the last one, but I kinda guess it could be anything if it's been painted on.

Anything more architecturally solid on building number three.

No idea why they are there tho' - maybe that's where the original cash to build that bit of Melbourne came from ?