House at 184 Hall Street
184 Hall Street SPOTSWOOD, Hobsons Bay City
Spotswood Industrial Heritage Precinct
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Statement of Significance
The house, constructed c.1889 and the soap factory (former) at 184 Hall Street, Spotswood.
How is it Significant?The house and soap factory (former) at 184 Hall Street, Spotswood are of local historic, aesthetic and technical significance to the City of Hobson's Bay.
Why is it Significant?Historically, the house is significant as the oldest dwelling in Spotswood and as the only surviving building associated William Hall Snr. who was one of the first settlers in the Spotswood area. It is also significant for its later associations with the industrialist, George Beal, who established the Soap Factory at the rear. The siting of the house adjacent to the rear factory illustrates the transformation of Spotswood from a rural farming area to a major industrial centre during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (AHC criteria A4, D2 and H1)
Aesthetically, the house is significant as the only known example in the Spotswood area and one of the few in the city as a whole of a Victorian Italianate villa with notable detail such as the polychromatic brickwork. The quality of the dwelling in what was then a remote area illustrates the importance of its early owners. (AHC criteria B2, E1 and F1)
Technically, the former soap factory is significant as a rare surviving example of its type, which provides important evidence of this industrial process in the early twentieth century. The factory building itself is notable for its relatively high degree of internal and external integrity with original equipment and its unusual curved roof with timber and metal trusses. (AHC criteria B2 and F1)
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House at 184 Hall Street - Physical Description 1
The house is an asymmetrically planned Victorian Italianate villa, of coloured polychromatic brickwork with a hipped and slated roof and timber verandah, decorated in part with cast iron. The front door retains leadlighted fanlights, but the sidelights have been replaced with clear glass. The front door is not original. The cast iron frieze appears to be missing from the verandah, which has been altered; blinds have been added and rainwater gutters replaced. The original scalloped profile, round head picket fence and gates identified by the 1987 Study has recently been replaced.
A clipped Pittosporum hedge, and palm clump in the front yard are the apparent remnants of early plantings that provide a related (albeit diminished) setting.
The former Soap factory is a corrugated iron clad building, which is situated in the rear yard behind the house. It has a curved iron roof that, unusually, is supported on triangular metal trusses (timber at either end). Internally, it is simply divided into two large rooms which contain much of the remnant equipment associated with the soap making operation including vats, pipes, storage, and a machine for wrapping the finished product. Inward opening windows are set high in the wall. There is a smaller gabled timber building to one side - possibly the manager's office?
House at 184 Hall Street - Integrity
External Integrity and condition
House - Moderate integrity and fair condition. Factory - High integrity
House at 184 Hall Street - Physical Description 2
Context
The house is now an isolated building, which by contrast with surrounding industrial development, provides visual counterpoint as well as the historical link as an obviously industrially linked residence. Reputedly more large villas once were sited in this area, each set back from the street; this being one of the last (A Ackerly: manager's houses).
House at 184 Hall Street - Historical Australian Themes
Making suburbs
House at 184 Hall Street - Physical Description 3
Associations
William Hall, George Beal, George Beal & Co.
Heritage Study and Grading
Hobsons Bay - Hobsons Bay Heritage Study
Author: Hobsons Bay City Council
Year: 2006
Grading:
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SEWERAGE PUMPING STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1555
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CSL (COMMONWEALTH SERUM LABORATORIES) COLLECTIONVictorian Heritage Register H2422
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SPOTSWOOD PUMPING STATIONVictorian Heritage Inventory
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