Earlier this year, Lydiard Street Antiques owner Peter Willis said he found a book that caught his attention at an estate sale in Creswick.
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"It was interesting in its own right, because I hadn't seen a pronunciation dictionary before," he said.
The book is titled 'Dictionary of Pronunciation', and it became far more intriguing once he opened the cover.
Inscribed on the inside page was, 'John Westwood, 55 MacCarthur Street Ballarat 1871'.
"When I saw the name in the front, someone had gone out of their way to put it there, I thought they must be proud of it," he said.
"I thought maybe there's a connection, someone with that family might like the book."
But then, Mr Willis said he noticed another label inside the book, 'Bound by W.Paul 77 Lydiard Street', which is the same street as where his shop is located.
Mr Willis phoned the Eureka Centre, but he said he was unable to find the location of the address.
The numbers on the buildings in Lydiard Street have changed over the years, so the exact location of 77 Lydiard Street was a mystery that Mr Willis had to solve.
He said a regular visitor to the store suggested to him that the address might be close.
"He said to me, 'I got a vague feeling it was actually somewhere around here'," Mr Willis said.
After visiting the library, his friend found an advertisement in the 1869 Business Directory for W.Paul, and an old photo of Mr Willis' building, where you can see a label for W.Paul's business on the outside.
Mr Willis was also in conversation with his neighbours, who told him they had previously obtained information from the library about their address, 213 Lydiard Street.
The information for Mr Willis' address for his antique shop, 211 Lydiard Street, was on the same page as the information they had found.
It revealed that 211 Lydiard Street used to be 77 Lydiard Street, the exact address of W.Paul's business where the book was bound in 1869.
After 150 years, the book had returned home.
"It all cross referenced and there it was, all laid out for me," Mr Willis said.
"I should have known it in the first place."
The book will remain at home for now, as Mr Willis said will not put it up for sale - he will instead pass it on to the next owner of the building.
Mr Willis bought the building 33 years ago.
He hopes to own the store for at least another four years, following in the footsteps of the previous owner who also held the store for 37 years.
