James Davey arrived in the Frankston area in 1840, gaining a 640 acre pre-emptive right to land license over what are now the suburbs of Frankston and Frankston South from Olivers Hill south to Daveys Bay. Davey built the Cannanuke Inn in the mid-1840s, which was the first permanent building in the Frankston area, and was located on the site of the present Frankston Mechanics' Institute at 1 Plowman Place in the Frankston Central Business District (CBD). He built the first permanent wooden house in the southern Frankston area located near Daveys Bay on Olivers Hill in 1851—which was originally known as "Old Man Davey's Hill".