MACKAY STREET
3-51 & 4-50 MACKAY STREET, ESSENDON, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The Mackay Street precinct, which comprises the houses at 3-51 and 4-50 Mackay Street, Essendon, and subdivided in c.1888-1890s and developed c.1900-20s, is significant.
The following features contribute to the significance of the precinct:
. The pattern of development in the precinct which comprises a mixed streetscape of Victorian, Federation and interwar houses, and the key features and original detailing characteristic of their respective styles, in many cases transitional styles.
. Bluestone laneways at the rear of 3-13 and 4-48 Mackay Street.
. Original or early front fence at 22 Mackay Street.
The houses at 3, 9, 11, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51 and 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 26, 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 are Contributory.
Non-original alterations and additions to the Contributory buildings are not significant.
The houses at 5, 7, 17 and 33 and 6, 18, 24, 28, 42, 44, 48 and 50 Mackay Street are Non-contributory to the precinct.
How is it significant?
The Mackay Street Precinct, Essendon, is of local historical, and representative (architectural) significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
Historically the Mackay Street precinct illustrates what was a typical pattern of development in Moonee Valley, when larger estates were subdivided in the late nineteenth-century land boom, but where most development occurred between c.1905 and the 1930s. Development was spurred by improved transport connections and other services, including the introduction of electric trams along Mt Alexander Road in 1906. Mackay Street is typical of this pattern of development in Moonee Valley, the housing stock reflective of the history of Essendon's development. (Criterion A)
The Mackay Street precinct is significant as a representative area of late nineteenth century and early to mid-twentieth century housing in this part of the municipality. The mixed streetscape of Victorian, Federation and interwar era houses, which retain key features and detailing characteristic of their respective styles, demonstrate the key development phases. Interspersed throughout the precinct are many dwellings that reflect the transition between the Victorian and Federation eras through their designs, which incorporate features of both the Italianate and Queen Anne styles. These dwellings that combine stylistic features from different eras, add visual cohesion to the otherwise mixed streetscape.. (Criterion D)
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MACKAY STREET - Physical Description 1
The Mackay Street precinct is a residential area that comprises a mix of housing stock from the Victorian, Edwardian and Interwar periods, at 3-51 & 4-50 Mackay Street. The houses have varying frontage widths and setbacks, but contain mostly detached housing with similar form (hipped or gabled roofs, verandahs), scale (mostly single-storey), materials and ornament.
Mackay Street is set on a north-south axis between Glass Street to the north and Brewster Street to the south. The subject area comprises both sides and the entire length of Mackay Street, a road of moderate width with concrete kerb and channelling. It has a typical arrangement of grassed nature strips on both sides with concrete footpaths. Most houses have concrete driveway crossovers. A bluestone lane abuts the rear of the properties on the east side of Mackay Street, and to numbers 3-13 on the west side.
Front fences throughout the precinct are uniformly low, consisting mostly of capped or uncapped timber picket, with some masonry and wire cyclone fences, all sympathetic in style and scale to the era of the properties. Numbers 22 and 48 retain original or early low brick fences with mild steel infill and matching gates.
The predominant character of the precinct is created by the many houses that reflect the transition between the Victorian and Edwardian eras through their design which incorporate features of both the Italianate and Queen Anne styles. This was a popular though conservative dwelling form in the years prior to World War I and integrates successfully into streetscapes of both Victorian Italianate and pure Federation Queen Anne examples. These types of houses generally comprise those built by c.1910, at numbers 11, 12, 15, 16, 21, 26, 29, 32, 34, 35, and 37 in the Mackay Street precinct, and represent the following types:
. Italianate-Queen Anne form with asymmetrical massing, a hipped or pyramidal roof with a projecting street-facing gable or hipped bay, weatherboard, block-fronted or red brick walls with rendered stringcourse; Italianate-style details incorporated in the bullnose-profile to verandahs and bracketed eaves, and; Queen Anne details displayed in window hoods and gable end detailing, including timber strapping and roughcast to emulate half-timbering; frieze decoration varies among the dwellings, some have Queen Anne-style timber ladder fretwork, while others retain Italianate-style cast-iron lace work; some have Italianate-style chimneys with rendered cornice, while others have Queen Anne-style corbelled red brick chimneys.
. Double-fronted, substantial Italianate houses, block-fronted to simulate ashlar stonework or red brick with rendered stringcourses, with bullnose-profile verandah, Italianate-style cast-iron frieze and bracketed eaves, Queen Anne-style corbelled brick chimneys.
. Attached Italianate terrace form (pair at 32 & 34) with pyramidal roof and bullnose verandah, block-fronted with bracketed eaves, and Edwardian-era details including decorative window joinery, timber frieze and Queen Anne-style chimneys.
These hybrid dwellings illustrate the long popularity of the Italianate style and its adaptation to new trends in the twentieth century.
Houses at numbers 3, 4, 8, 9, 14 and 31 demonstrate truer, though in most cases rather late, examples of Italianate-style houses, with number 3 probably built before 1900, and the others by 1910. Houses from this period typically constitute one of two types: the asymmetrical form with a canted bay, either a slate or corrugated iron roof, hipped or slight bullnose profile to the verandah, or; the symmetrical, double-fronted form, clad with timber boards to simulate ashlar stonework, verandah with bullnose roof and elaborate cast-iron frieze and brackets, turned timber posts, bracketed eaves and panelled frieze. Most have Italianate-style chimneys with a cement-rendered cornice. The house at number 8 embodies a more modest, cottage-like form, with a pyramidal roof, block-fronted facade with quoined effect, Italianate-style cornice to the tall red brick chimney, bullnose return verandah with cast-iron lacework.
The Queen Anne style houses at numbers 10, 13, 19, 20, 23, 25, 27, 30, 36 and 39-49 were mostly built by 1910, though some were constructed as late as 1920. One notable and intact example is number 13, a substantial brick villa with a picturesquely asymmetrical form and hipped roof with projecting gable. It retains rendered string courses, timber turned finials and roughcast detailing to the chimneys and gable ends, and incorporates an Art Nouveau-style moon gate arch to the verandah. Other examples of the Queen Anne style in the precinct are either:
- Timber villas with a steeply-pitched hipped roof with gablet and street-facing gable. Typical details include timber-strapping and roughcast to the gable ends to emulate half-timbering, most having the verandah incorporated beneath the main slope of the roof, and with decorative timber fretwork and turned timber posts. Most retain window hoods and corbelled red brick chimneys. (10, 27, 30, 39, 41, 43, 45)
- Modest houses of either brick or timber construction with gabled roofs, and usually with a side or return verandah incorporated under one slope of the roof. Most retain simple timber-strapping detail to the gable ends and timber fretwork. (19, 20, 23, 25, 36, 47 & 49)
There are two Contributory Interwar-era houses of brick construction in the precinct, both on the east side of the street at numbers 22 and 38. Both have an asymmetrical bungalow form with a dominant gabled or transverse gabled roof of terracotta tiles, and a prominent porch incorporated beneath the main roof. Each dwelling has a wide street frontage, and number 22 retains and original or early low brick fence with mild steel infill and matching gates. The bungalows retain elements of the Queen Anne style, including terracotta finials and bracketed gable ends and timber brackets to the verandah posts.
The Mackay Street Precinct has good visual cohesion. The housing is of good quality and, overall, of good integrity and intactness. Many of the dwellings reflect the transition between the Victorian and Edwardian eras through their design which incorporate features of both the Italianate and Queen Anne Styles. This creates a high level of visual continuity with the different style of the other dwellings in the precinct, comprising Victorian Italianate and pure Federation Queen Anne examples, as well as Interwar Bungalows.
While some of the houses have been altered in detail (roofing materials, verandah detailing, for example), the majority of the dwellings in the precinct are of high intactness when viewed from the street, and retain their original building and roof form, verandahs with associated detailing, patterns of fenestration, window and door joinery and chimneys. Few houses have second-storey additions, and those that do are either set back from the main ridgeline (8, 23, 39, 45, 49) or otherwise discrete (10), and the original style and form of the dwellings remain legible. Aerial photography shows several houses with rear additions that are completely obscured from the street frontage. Visual consistency is achieved by the similar form (hipped or gabled roofs, verandahs), scale (mostly single-storey), materials and ornament among the dwellings.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - City of Moonee Valley Stage 1 Heritage Gap Study
Author: Context PL
Year: 2013
Grading:Moonee Valley - Moonee Valley 2017 Heritage Study
Author: Context
Year: 2019
Grading:
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