Argo Hotel
62-74 Argo Street SOUTH YARRA, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The Argo Hotel, formerly known as Sheppard's Hotel, at 64 Argo Street, South Yarra.
How is it Significant?
The Argo Hotel is of local architectural and historical significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it Significant?
The Argo Hotel is of historical significance for the enduring use of the site as licensed premises for almost one and a half centuries. The hotel also demonstrates the major interwar trend of rebuilding nineteenth century hotels to meet stringent State liquor licensing laws. The Argo Hotel is of additional significance for its location in a residential neighbourhood, catering for a local clientele away from major thoroughfares.
The Argo Hotel is architecturally significant as a rare and largely intact example of an interwar hotel executed in an accomplished low-key Mediterranean mode. This style is commonly associated with domestic rather than commercial buildings and the Argo Hotel's architectural expression is unique among hotel buildings in the City of Stonnington and rare in hotels in the broader Metropolitan area. The significance of the Argo Hotel is further enhanced by its association with interwar architect Gordon J Sutherland.
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Argo Hotel - Physical Description 1
The Argo Hotel is located on the south-east corner of Argo and Hyland streets, South Yarra. The hotel property includes two vacant lots, which are presently used as a carkpark.
The hotel is double-storey masonry building with an understated Mediterranean character arising from elements such as round arched windows, stylised parapets, hipped terracotta tiled roofs and textured rendered walls. The Argo Street frontage has deep projecting eaves on paired brackets (or 'beam ends'), which are also suggestive of the Mediterranean style, set between corner parapets with stepped pediments. At the centre of the facade a first floor balcony, with a rendered balustrade panel incorporating diagonal cross-braced 'X' motifs to either end, cantilevers over the street. The cross motif reoccurs as a decorative device to the parapet pediments and the upper sashes of first floor windows. The ground floor contains a series of arched window and door openings surmounted by modern canvas awnings. The exterior walls have a light roughcast finish.
The original frames to the ground floor windows have been replaced and the door at the western end has been removed to create a recessed entry porch. A tiled dado evident on a c.1962 photograph of the hotel has also been removed. Much of the hotel's rear yard has been built over with a single-storey flat roofed addition. The addition presents to Hyland Street as a very simple parapeted brick wall with a deep recessed entry. There is also a very modest first floor skillion roofed addition immediately behind the original building and various metal flues and heating and cooling plant protruding from the roof at the rear. The exterior otherwise remains largely intact to its c.1929 state.
The interior of the hotel was not inspected during the preparation of this report but it is understood to have been extensively refurbished.
Argo Hotel - Historical Australian Themes
The Argo Hotel illustrates the following themes as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, 2006):
7.1 Serving Local Communities
7.4.1 Early Hotels
7.4.2 Developing a Modern Hospitality IndustryArgo Hotel - Local Historical Themes
7.1 Serving Local Communities
7.4.1 Early Hotels
7.4.2 Developing a Modern Hospitality Industry
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - Hotels in the City of Stonnington Heritage Citations Project
Author: Bryce Raworth Pty Ltd
Year: 2010
Grading: A2
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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1467Victorian Heritage Register H1032
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MAJELLAVictorian Heritage Register H0783
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PRAHRAN TOWN HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0203
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