Antony J. Lucas

Antony John Jereos Lucas (Lekatsas) (1862–1946) was an influential Greek Australian businessman noted for his philanthropic activities and construction of numerous public and private buildings in Melbourne, Australia. Ultimately, Antony Lucas became the Greek Consul General to Australia in 1921 and Consul in Melbourne in 1931–46.

Born Antonios Ioannis Gerasimos Lekatsas on 18 October 1862, the second child of Ioannis Lekatsas (a priest) and his wife Magdalene Palmos.

Migrating just before his younger brother Marino Lucas (Marinos Lekatsas) from their hometown of Exoghi (Exogi) on the Greek island of Ithaca in 1886, the young man quickly began to build his fortune.

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 café serviced over five hundred diners at any one time.

Initially residing on the top floor of the café, Lucas purchased the Toorak mansion Whernside in 1918. This property was subsequently owned by Jewish immigrant and business tycoon Solomon Lew. In 1928 Lucas moved to the 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.

Lucas subsequently opened two more restaurants, the Paris Café, in Collins Street and the Vienna Café (on the site of what is now the Hotel Australia in Collins Street). These ventures prospered under Lucas' keen entrepreneurial skills.

From a December 2016 Sydney Morning Herald/Melbourne Age article by Arnold Zable:

"In 1915, a group of drunken soldiers, incensed that the Vienna Cafe bore the name of the enemy, stoned the premises and threatened its patrons. Lekatsas closed the cafe and hired Chicago architect, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife, Marion Mahoney Griffin, to remodel it. Griffin was in Australia to oversee the building of Canberra. The contract also allowed him to set up private practices in Melbourne and Sydney.

The cafe was re-opened in November 1916 at a gala event attended by prominent Melburnians, including opera singer, Nellie Melba. The guests were stunned by the arched quartz entrance, the piers with reliefs of Greek goddesses, the marble stairway to the grand banquet hall, the murals of Australian pastoral scenes, and the avant-garde design of the furniture, among many other striking features. The renovations arguably marked the beginnings of modernist architecture in Australia. Lekatsas was taking no chances – he renamed his venture Cafe Australia.

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