An early owner was Robert Smith, from 1865, when it was called Berochah. He sold in 1873, when the house was described as 'commodiuous', but 20 years old.
In 1873 it was then bought by Francis Boardman Clapp, the American born transport entrepreneur who introduced horse trams and then cable trams to Melbourne. His wife, Isabella Pennock Pierce, had been born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and the house was renamed after her hometown.
The Vardy plan of 1873 shows a house of similar layout to the later MMBW plans, but shows the front part of the house to be timber, which would likely be single storey.
Isaac Hallenstein, a partner in the the successful tannery and leather producing company Michaelis and Hallenstein, bought the property in approximately 1877. Both Michaelis and Hallenstein were German born Jews, and were instrumental in building the St Kilda Synagogue in 1872 to serve the growing local mostly well off Jewish community. A later newspaper reference states that Hallenstein built or rebuilt the house in 1874, so it is likely the timber section was replaced then by a larger two storey brick house on a similar layout.
In Dec 1891 his son Reuben Hallenstein married Lucie Michaelis, daughter of his business partner Moritz Michaelis, who lived nearby in Linden in Acland Street. Reuben and Lucie lived at Woonsocket, staying on after Isaac died in 1911 having returned to Germany. Lucie held many social events at Woonsocket, and was active in various charitable concerns, including establishing a Soldiers’ Lounge in St Kilda during WWI, and fundraising for the Alfred Hospital. She received an OBE for these efforts in 1934.
The property was put up for sale in 1941, advertised as suitable for subdivision into 12 lots, but was passed in, and the Hallensteins were still living there when both Rueben and Lucie died in 1949. In the same year, a subdivision of lots including the new cul-de-sac of Woonsocket Court were sold. Many blocks were bought by the same developers, hence the matching style of the small cream brick apartment blocks that now line the street. No 1 was developed by noted architect Ernest Fooks as flats and to house his office, completed in 1955, but is the most altered.
