John Ingram had been a head gardener for 15 years on a Scottish estate in Ayreshire where he met and married Mary Cumming on 2nd July 1844. They had three children, William born April 1845, Jane born February 1847 and John born November 1850.

In 1852 John decided to undertake the long voyage to Australia with his young family. Accompanying John and his family on this voyage was his daughter from his first marriage, Helen Ingram aged 14 years, his mother-in-law, Mary Cumming, and his brother, Walter Ingram. The group travelled down to Liverpool to catch the ship "The Edmund" which left Liverpool on the 10th of November 1852.

The first permanent structure on the property appears to have been a small two roomed brick building that eventually became the kitchen and laundry. The remanents of this buiding can be found in the Demonstration Kitchen and storerooms. It is not known when the rest of the house was built.

John Ingram died aged 80 years on 31st May 1897 after having handed the property over to his eldest son, William. William was Shire President in 1900 and suggested the name Glen Waverley for the new suburb. William died in 1911 aged 66 years. He left his estate to his wife, Jane Ferguson, who sold the property soon afterwards thus ending over 60 years of the Ingram connection with Glen Waverley.

In 1918 Michael Lawless purchased the property and in about 1927 he added a new brick frontage which included the present veranda. This had the effect of turning the aspect of the house 180 degrees to face Springvale Road whereas it had previously faced the Dandenongs.

Over the years the land belonging to the Bellfield property was sold off until all that remained was the four large house blocks on which the house sits. This property was purchased by the City of Waverley in 1979 to develop as a neighbourhood house which eventually took the name Mount Street Neighbourhood House.