'Diamond House' & adjacent house, 24 Seaby Street, STAWELL
24 Seaby Street STAWELL, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
The Diamond House at 24 Seaby Street, Stawell, has significance as a unique example of 19th century domestic architecture in Victoria. Constructed of rectangular, parapeted wall planes, the building features highly unusual and intact brown and quartz stone facades shaped in diamond patterns and bordered by timber slats. The idea and construction was conceived by the original owner, John Hearne, miner and wine merchant, with the work being carried out between c.1866 and 1868. The house appears to be in good condition when viewed from the street and makes a significant contribution to the predominantly single storey Victorian styled streetscape.
The Diamond House at 24 Seaby Street is architecturally and scientifically significant at a STATE level. It demonstrates unique design and construction qualities for a 19th century residential building in Victoria. These qualities include the parapeted rectangular wall planes constructed of brown stones and white quartz in the shape of diamonds that are bordered by wooden slats. Other intact qualities include the uniform appearance of the carefully cut and fitted stones, decorative brick and stone parapet band, screw fixings, flat roof behind the parapet, unpainted and multi-corbelled chimney, and the paired elongated timber framed casement windows with herringbone pattern glazing that continues the diamond theme. There are few if any known comparisons with the Diamond House in Australia, with the most comparable building being Jules Saulner's chocolate factory at Noisiel on the Marne in France. This design was published in E.E. Viollet-le-Duc's Entretiens sur l'Architecture, second volume, published in French in 1872 and in English in 1881.
The Diamond House at 24 Seaby Street is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with residential developments in Stawell in the 19th century. In particular, this house has associations with John Hearne, miner, wine merchant and original owner, who conceived the rare design and construction of the house had built it between c.1866 and 1868.
The Diamond House at 24 Seaby Street is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised and valued by the Stawell community for its highly unusual architectural qualities.
Overall, the Diamond House is of STATE significance.
-
-
'Diamond House' & adjacent house, 24 Seaby Street, STAWELL - Physical Description 1
The house known as the Diamond House at 24 Seaby Street, Stawell, is set on an average-sized allotment for the area and has visual connections with other significant single storey houses. The front has a garden of exotic trees and shrubs and the is bound by an introduced flat timber picket fence that is approximately 1 m high.
The unique, Victorian single storey Diamond House building is especially characterised by its highly unusual parapeted wall planes constructed of brown stones and white quartz in the shape of diamonds that are bordered by wooden slats. The carefully cut and fitted stones have a uniform appearance throughout the rectangular wall planes which are capped by a decorative brick band. Screws instead of nails appear to have been used. Behind the parapet may be a flat roof. An early unpainted and multi-corbelled chimney adorns the roofline.
Another early and unusual feature of the design are the paired, elongated timber framed casement windows with herringbone patterned glazing continuing the diamond theme. Collectively these architectural features make the Diamond House a unique type of 19th century domestic architecture in Victoria.
At the rear of the house is a horizontal timber weatherboard addition with a gabled galvanised corrugated iron roof. Abutting the Diamond house at the side is an introduced brick addition.
Some unsympathetic signs project from the roof top and side wall of the house.
Comparative Analysis
(partly taken from National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Classification Report for the Diamond House, file no. 45)
The diamond treatment of the Diamond House has some strong similarities with Jules Saulner's chocolate factory at Noisiel on the Marne in France. The design was published in E.E. Viollet-le-Duc's Entretiens sur l'Architecture, second volume, published in French in 1872 and in English in 1881. Any links with Viollet-le-Duc's publication are uncertain, given that it was published several years after the construction of the Diamond House. However, the original owner's nephew, George Inskip (who arrived in Victoria in 1870), was an architect who had completed his studies in Germany. Both during and after his studies prior to emigrating to Australia Inskip visiting the principal cities of Europe. It may well have been from one of these visits that inspiration for the Diamond House was passed onto John Hearne through correspondence. While this scenario cannot be substantiated it is valid, given that the eminent architectural firm of Davidson and Henderson reinterpreted the French Romanesque designs published in Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionnaire Raisonne De L'Architecture Francaise Du Xie Au EVIe Siecle [1866] in their work throughout Victoria in the 1870s and 1880s.Heritage Study and Grading
Northern Grampians - Shire of Northern Grampians - Stage 2 Heritage Study
Author: Wendy Jacobs, Vicki Johnson, David Rowe, Phil Taylor
Year: 2004
Grading: State
-
-
-
-
-
FORMER LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTEVictorian Heritage Register H0531
-
CENTRAL PARKVictorian Heritage Register H2284
-
FORMER POLICE SUPERINTENDENT'S RESIDENCEVictorian Heritage Register H0986
-
-