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Smith's Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct
Auburn Parade and Burwood Avenue and Burwood Road and Carrington Avenue and Gillman Street and Newport Crescent HAWTHORN EAST, BOROONDARA CITY
Smith's Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct
Auburn Parade and Burwood Avenue and Burwood Road and Carrington Avenue and Gillman Street and Newport Crescent HAWTHORN EAST, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct, comprising 1-47 & 2A-68 Auburn Parade, 1-29 Burwood Avenue, 720-790 & 815-825 Burwood Road, 2-10 Carrington Avenue, 1-19 & 2-20 Gillman Street, and 1 & 2 Newport Crescent, Hawthorn East, is significant. The precinct boundaries correspond largely with a 1880s subdivision also known as the Burwood Reserve Estate. The majority of the houses were built in the late Victorian period (late 1880s-90s), with further infill in the Edwardian and interwar eras.
The Victorian house at 23-25 Burwood Avenue is significant. The following properties are non-contributory: 2A & 18 Auburn Parade, 1-5 & 29 Burwood Avenue, and 732-734, 758, 772 & 821 Burwood Road. The remaining properties are contributory, as are the bluestone pitched laneways running behind Auburn Parade to the north and south, and behind Gillman Street to the east and west.
How is it significant?
Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct is of local historic, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct is of historic significance for illustrating the influence of the opening of the Auburn and Camberwell railway stations in 1882, both on its topography and in the burst of development that followed it in the late nineteenth century. Smith’s Paddock was subdivided into 125 lots in 1886 to create the precinct. The desirability in being as close as possible to a train station during the pre-automotive era is illustrated by the differing subdivision patterns in the two halves of the precinct. Near the station are large villa allotments with a wide rear laneway (Carrington Avenue) on elevated land, while to the west of the line are narrower allotments with standard rear laneways. While separated by the railway cutting, there are open vistas between the two halves, as viewed from Burwood Avenue and Newport Crescent/Auburn Parade. (Criterion A)
Architecturally, the housing stock in the precinct is dominated by the Victorian Italianate style, with the large and small examples of the style displaying characteristic elements such as low-pitched hipped roofs, chimneys with a rendered cornice, bracketed eaves (many with raised panels between them), front or return verandahs with slender posts or columns and cast-iron ornament, double-hung sash windows often with sidelights, and four-panelled front doors with raised cricket-bat mouldings. There is a smaller group of Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne houses, which display characteristic features such as high hipped roofs (sometimes with a gablet at the top), the use of terracotta ridgecapping and tiles, projecting front gables with half-timbering in them, and timber verandah fretwork. Among the interwar houses of the precinct, the California Bungalow style is well represented, with dominant gabled roof forms and front porches, the use of timber shingles in gables, and heavy masonry porch piers. There are also a number of Old English houses from the 1930s, with characteristics vergeless and corbelled front gables, and the use of mottled clinker bricks often with textured render. The precinct’s bluestone pitched laneways and bluestone kerb and channel to the streets are characteristic of nineteenth century suburban infrastructure. The wide channel to Newport Crescent and the southern part of Auburn Crescent is unusual. (Criterion D)
‘Dartford’ at 23-25 Burwood Avenue, Hawthorn East, is of aesthetic significance for its elaborate decoration, applied to a substantial but standard Italianate villa form. Details of note include the Venetian Gothic cream brick arches above the front windows, the terracotta acanthus-leaf capitals between the windows, and the cast (possibly terracotta) classical cornice below the eaves. It is also of associative (historic) significance for its connection with the Fritsch family. It was built in 1898 as the home of Francis V Fritsch and family, and designed by his brother, Augustus A Fritsch. The two were sons of Augustus Fritsch, who had founded the nearby Hawthorn Brick Company with the Holzer brothers. Son, architect Augustus A Fritsch, was active designing many houses in the Hawthorn and Camberwell area during the late Victorian period, and the commission for a Roman Catholic presbytery in Malvern in 1894 marked the start of his long involvement with the Catholic Church. Notable works include parish churches at Hawthorn, Malvern, Elwood, Middle Park and Camberwell, St Patrick’s College at Sale and Assumption College at Kilmore. He designed many presbyteries, schools and convents throughout Victoria and elsewhere, including St Joseph’s and St John’s schools in Hawthorn. (Criteria E & H)
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Smith's Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct - Physical Description 1
Description & IntegritySmith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct is situated primarily on the south side of Burwood Road, just west of Burke Road, and is intersected by the Lilydale Railway line. The railway line sits in a cutting here, between Burwood Avenue and Newport Crescent/Auburn Parade, both of which follow the railway’s curved path. The north-eastern side of the precinct slopes down toward the south-western part, creating elevated views of Burwood Avenue from the south.Apart from accommodating the curve of the railway line, the streets to the west have a layout and dimensions typical of nineteenth-century inner-suburban residential areas. Relatively narrow blocks back onto bluestone pitched service laneways. This is in contrast with the east side of the precinct, where the rear laneway shared by Burwood Road and Burwood Avenue is a full-width street, now paved in asphalt. While this side of the Burwood Reserve subdivision originally featured large ‘villa sites’, two were subdivided in the late 1880s to accommodate four narrow terrace-type houses (freestanding, but with minimal side setbacks) facing Burwood Avenue (Nos. 15-21), and a terrace of three shallow double-fronted dwellings to their rear at 6-10 Carrington Avenue. In all, Carrington Avenue has five dwellings, and a footpath serving them along the south side. Along the north side of the street is an informal nature strip planted with semi-mature Melaleuca trees. Apart from these examples, and a small number of semi-detached pairs, all of the Contributory houses in the eastern part of the precinct are freestanding and double-fronted. To the west of the railway line, where allotments were narrower from the start, there is a fairly even mix between single and double-fronted houses, plus one terrace (1-11 Auburn Parade), and a small number of semi-detached pairs, most of them Edwardian.
The public domain in the precinct features asphalt-paved roadways with bluestone pitched kerb and a narrow (one or two block) channel. The exceptions to this are Newport Crescent and 48-68 Auburn Parade, which does not have a hard kerb but a shallow four-block channel. This channel is traversed by a small footbridge in front of 50 Auburn Road. It is modern in construction and does not appear on the 1903 MMBW plan. Gillman Street has lost all bluestone paving elements. To the north and south of Auburn Parade are long bluestone-pitched laneways. There is also a laneway to the rear of Gillman Street which retains bluestone pitches to the eastern half of the roadbed only.
A number of houses have a mature tree at the front or the back of the property that contributes to the aesthetic value of the precinct. These are 23-25 Burwood Avenue (Canary Island Palm), 27 Burwood Avenue (Corymbia sp.), 756 Burwood Road (Norfolk Island Pine), 774 Burwood Road (Cypress), 20 Gillman Street (Sycamore).As noted in the History, the large majority of houses in Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct were built during the late Victorian era, between 1886 and 1892. As the Italianate style was dominant during this period, all of these houses can be described as more or less standard examples of this architectural style. The Italianate is characterised by low-pitched hipped roofs, chimneys with a rendered cornice, bracketed eaves (many with raised panels between them), front or return verandahs with slender posts or columns and cast-iron ornament, double-hung sash windows often with sidelights, and four-panelled front doors with raised cricket-bat mouldings. The houses can be divided into two basic groups: double-fronted houses which are often more substantial in construction (mainly of brick) and elaborate in detail; and the more modest single-fronted examples that are mainly of timber construction and are both freestanding and attached.In keeping with the Italianate style, the double-fronted houses are of two types: those with flat (block-fronted) symmetrical facades, and those with a hipped bay projecting to one side creating an asymmetrical facade. This projecting bay is either rectangular or canted in plan. The roofs of these larger houses are generally clad in slates, often with decorative details such as bands of octagonal slates, often in a contrasting colour (e.g., 788 Burwood Road).
Reflecting the improved quality of bricks in the late 1880s, most of the double-fronted houses have tuckpointed polychrome face brick walls. The body colour of these houses is brown Hawthorn bricks, with banding, window and door dressings, and diaper patterns to the eaves in cream or red brick (or both). Intact examples of bichrome (brown and cream) and polychrome (brown, cream and red) brickwork are seen at 4, 26, 27, 28, 34, 38, 39, 43 & 54 Auburn Parade; 728, 730, 756, 788 & 790 Burwood Road; and 8, 11 & 18 Gillman Street.
There are many other polychrome brick houses that have been overpainted or, in a few cases, over-rendered. Two examples that are quite unusual, though altered in this way, are asymmetrical villas at 46 & 48 Auburn Parade. Both have bands of cast ornament (small and large rinceaux patterns) running below eaves level and around the windows (of No. 48). Both have a parapet concealing the roof of the projecting bay. While quite modest at No. 48, it is a full-fledged stepped parapet with a shell bas-relief in the top pediment, and the name ‘Esk’ below.
The most outstanding example of this type is ‘Dartford’ at 23 Burwood Avenue, built in 1898 for Francis Fritsch and designed by his brother, Augustus A Fritsch. It is a large, elevated villa, asymmetrical in form, with a projecting hipped bay and return verandah. The polychrome brickwork uses red brick quoining (in contrast to the typical cream brick quoining) and exaggerated cream brick arches above the front windows imparting a Venetian Gothic feel. Even more unusual is the cast ornament. Instead of the typical eaves brackets, the house has a classical cornice utilising egg & dart, fluted and pearl mouldings. At the springing of the front window segmental arches are acanthus-leaf capitals that appear to be unglazed terracotta (the cornice may be terracotta as well, but it has been overpainted). The house is highly intact externally. The property also retains a mature Canary Island Palm in the front garden, a species that was very fashionable during the Edwardian and interwar periods.It appears that only one of these double-fronted houses originally had rendered walls (though a few others have recent render). This is the elegant highset villa with a large canted projecting bay at 27 Burwood Avenue, which retains run and cast cement ornament such as pilasters between windows, moulded architraves and keystones to windows, and run stringcourses. It also retains its original verandah iron, included fluted Corinthian columns and a combined frieze and brackets.
There are also a small number of very elegant timber double-fronted houses, one of them a rare two-storey example. This is 64 Auburn Parade, whose front facade is articulated with a two-storey canted bay window. The house retains a small corner porch (probably original), but has lost the front verandah shown on the 1903 MMBW plan. The front walls are of ashlar-look boards with massive corner ‘quoins’. Nearby, the single-storey house at 60 Auburn Road is distinguished by the picturesque combination of a pierced bargeboard to the projecting front gable above a full-width canted bay window with panelling and moulded window surrounds. Two other timber houses with particularly fine details are the pair at 1 & 2 Newport Crescent. They are symmetrical, block-fronted houses with ashlar-look boards. There are raised timber ‘quoins’ to the corners of the houses and around their front doors, barley-twist colonettes between the paired front windows, and applied scalloped mouldings to the eaves (as well as brackets and cricket bat mouldings) and the verandah beam. Both houses retain Corinthian verandah columns, but only 2 Newport Crescent still has its cast-iron frieze and brackets.
About half of the Victorian houses, particularly on the west side of the precinct, are single-fronted cottages. They often have only a verandah across the front facade, a single front window (often with sidelights), and a simple hipped roof many of which retain their original slate cladding. They share common characteristics of the Italianate style with the larger houses, including window and door types (double-hung windows, four-panelled doors), and verandah details. The majority of the smaller houses are of timber construction, with ashlar-look boards to the facade, while others are of brick (polychrome or plain, with many overpainted). While many of the cottages have exposed eaves with decorative brackets and mouldings between them, few have parapeted fronts with elaborate cast-cement decoration (see 6 & 8 Auburn Parade, 17 & 19 Gillman Street). Most of the cottages are freestanding, with a smaller number of semi-detached pairs (see 762-764 Burwood Road, 6-8 & 19-21 Auburn Parade, 17-19 Gillman Street) and two brick terraces (1-11 Auburn Road, 6-10 Carrington Avenue). The Carrington Avenue terrace is quite austere with a transverse hipped roof and simple skillion verandah roofs with stop-chamfered timber posts. The walls are of brown Hawthorn brick with red brick accents (mostly overpainted). The Auburn Road terrace is more decorative and suggests a transition to the Federation period with details such as diagonal boarding to the front door surrounds and a scrolled open pediment detail to the front parapets.Typical alterations to the large and small Victorian houses in the precinct include the overpainting of face brick and the loss of original verandah posts and cast-iron. A smaller number of houses also have a change of format to the front windows, replacement of the front door with a simplified version, complete loss of the verandah superstructure, and rendering of face brick. There is also a small number of houses that have a visible two-storey rear extension, 13 & 54 Auburn Parade, but in both cases the addition is set behind the front chimney and is legible as a later alteration.
Within this residential area, there is one building that was designed for both commercial and residential uses (shop at ground floor, shopkeeper’s dwelling behind and on the first floor). This is 66-68 Auburn Parade, Hawthorn East, at the west end not far from the Burke Road shopping area. Built c.1890-92, this two-storey building that contained two tenancies is built to the front boundary and has arched openings to both levels of the front facade. The first floor retains run mouldings to the windows, as well as heavy cornices at the top and bottom of this level, with a very simple parapet at the top. The ground floor walls have been rebuilt and their original appearance is unknown.
Federation/Edwardian houses in the precinct are most likely to be built of face brick, with the semi-detached form even more popular than in the Victorian era. Stylistically they can be called Queen Anne in style. All of these houses have the distinctive half-timber front gable form, either defining the facade for single-fronted examples, or creating an asymmetrical villa form. Other changes from the Victorian era are the prominent use of red brick (sometimes with brown Hawthorn brick or rendered dressings), and the use of casement windows with highlights. While some Edwardian houses retained a low hipped roof profile (see 782 Burwood Road), others adopt the more typical Federation pyramidal or gabled hipped roof (see 780 & 815 Burwood Road, 10 Auburn Parade). Roof cladding underwent a transition from slate with terracotta ridge tiles and finials (10 Auburn Parade) to fully tiled roofs (766-768, 780 & 815-819 Burwood Road).
Timber Edwardian houses still have ashlar-block cladding (10 Auburn Parade, 782 Burwood Road) or weatherboards with an ornamental band of scalloped boards at the base (780 Burwood Road). The verandahs also demonstrate the transition, moving from slender Corinthian columns to turned timber posts, but some retain cast-iron decoration (see 782 Burwood Road). Most have timber fretwork more typical of the Federation era (see 780 & 815-819 Burwood Road, 15 Gillman Street). The earliest and finest example of this type is ‘Villa Maria’ at 720 Burwood Road, constructed in 1896 when Victorian Italianate was still the dominant style. Situated on a corner site, the house has a half-timbered gable facing Burwood Road, an octagonal tower with witch’s hat roof addressing the corner, and a timber fretwork verandah facing Gillman Street. Walls are of red brick with brown Hawthorn brick dressings. Given its early date for the style, it still has double-hung sash windows more typical of the Victorian era.
The Edwardian-era houses in the precinct are generally of a high intactness, with a small number of external alterations noted, limited to the loss of verandah fretwork (10 & 41A Auburn Parade).Burwood Road, to the west of the railway line, is the area with the strongest interwar character in the precinct, as two-thirds of the houses date from that era, many of them in a single row. Other single and duplex examples are scattered around the other streets, representing the final infill of the subdivision. The houses of the early interwar period (c1915-30) are characterised by red brick walls and tiled roofs, while later houses of the 1930s are likely to be finished in roughcast render and utilise darker, multi-coloured bricks.
The earliest of the interwar houses (c1915-20) have a bungalow form with Arts & Crafts decorative detail (see 41-41A Auburn Parade, 726 Burwood Road), and some retain a very Queen Anne massing (see 825 Burwood Road). The semi-detached dwelling at 41 Auburn Parade is particularly distinguished by its curvilinear solid verandah fretwork. The most substantial of these is an attic bungalow of c1915 at 770 Burwood Road, which combines heavy bungalow form such as brick verandah piers with ladder-back fretwork more typical of the Edwardian era.
The houses of the 1920s are almost all detached California Bungalows. These houses are strongly characterised by the gabled roof form in many variations. While some earlier examples have a hipped or gabled-hipped roof, most have a gable-fronted or transverse-gabled roof. Nearly all have a gabled front porch which might be nested below the main roof gable. Gables are often clad in timber shingles, sometimes combined with a simplified version of half-timbering. Porch supports are heavy square brick piers, or a low brick pier topped by a tapered pier (rendered to set them apart). Windows are double-hung sashes, often combined in horizontal groups or bay windows.
Houses of the 1930s in the precinct are mostly constructed of brick, using the newly popular clinker brick with its dark, mottled colour. Semi-detached pairs are again common, often designed to look like a single house. The most common style is Old English. This style is recognisable by vergeless gables with corbelled eaves, and other medieval decorative touches. There are examples with solely brick walls (774-776 Burwood Road), but most common examples have a combination of textured render and clinker brick walls (2-4 Carrington Avenue, 9-11 Burwood Avenue). Other 1930s houses illustrate the returned popularity of the hipped roof (47 Auburn Parade, 13 Burwood Avenue).The 1930s houses appear to be highly intact externally, though 13 Burwood Avenue many have a second coat of render covering the original finish.Overall, integrity of the streetscapes is high, with only a small number of scattered non-contributory properties. Those in the western half of the precinct are single-storey and unobtrusive in the streetscape. On the eastern side, there are two late twentieth-century blocks of flats that replaced earlier dwellings on Burwood Road (Nos. 758 and 772), as well attached units at 1-3 Burwood Avenue, which replaced the first house in the area (‘Thorncliffe’). The flats and units are three and four-storeys in height and far more bulky than contributory houses in the precinct, however, they are set away from the main streetscapes.Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study Volume 6: Hawthorn East
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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