Villa
170 Punt Road PRAHRAN, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Victorian villa at 170 Punt Road, Prahran, built in stages in 1873, 1886 and completed c1893, is significant. It was built for warehouseman David Scott, and was owned from the 1880s to the early 1900s by successful coal merchant Edward Newbigin, who owned a number of residences along this part of Punt Road (including its neighbour at no. 174 Punt Road).
The house is significant to the extent of its late nineteenth-century external form and fabric and the house's presentation to the public realm in terms of its setback from Punt Road is significant.
The modern cement paving and the fabric of the replica verandah are not significant.
How is it significant?
The villa at 170 Punt Road, Prahran is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
170 Punt Road, Prahran is a fine representative example of a grand home built at a time when Punt Road constituted a prestigious address. The full street block, extending from Greville Street to High Street, was lined with comfortable homes set back from the road; many were double-storeyed and appear to date to a similar era. Many of these houses, including numbers 170 and 174, were owned from the 1880s to the early 1900s by the successful coal merchant Edward Newbigin (1848-1908). Newbigin acquired the house at 170 Punt Road in the 1880s and remodelled it in 1893. The Burgess family resided there from 1886 to 1913. In the post-war era, the house, along with many others in the area, was converted to shared accommodation, reflecting the general decline in the social status of the once prestigious Punt Road. (Criterion D)
The house is aesthetically significant for its expression of the principal aesthetic characteristics of the Victorian villa type of housing. It is distinguished by exceptional and bold cement render detail including heavy run mouldings around the segmentally and rounded arched windows, cast elements to the cornices, and to the unusual balconettes below the first-floor windows. The eaves are particularly ornate with paired brackets set between cricket bat mouldings and rosettes. The canted bay window is further embellished by a moulded stringcourse with dentilated cornice. (Criterion E)
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Villa - Physical Description 1
The residence at 170 Punt Road is a substantial two-storey Italianate villa that occupies a relatively wide allotment on the east side of Punt Road, north of the intersection with High Street in Prahran. The building is set back from the street behind a mid-sized paved area, which serves as car parking, and a masonry front wall.
The building adopts a common late-Victorian asymmetrical form with a two-storey stepped projecting bay with full height canted bay window to one side of a two-storey verandah. This form became popular during the 1880s, and in this respect the house at 170 Punt Road stands as a substantial but relatively typical suburban Italianate villa. The verandah is a sympathetic replacement of the original, although the verandah canted design as shown in the MMBW plan (1896) has been lost.
The projecting canted bay faces Punt Road and is distinguished by its exceptional and bold cement render detail including heavy run mouldings around the segmental and round arched windows with volute keystones, cast elements to the cornices, and to the unusual balconettes below the first-floor windows (with cast iron railings, consoles, and a blind balustrade). The eaves are particularly ornate with paired brackets set between cricket bat mouldings and rosettes. The canted bay window is further embellished by a moulded stringcourse with a dentilated cornice. Other windows beneath the verandah are simple square-headed full height double-hung sashes. The front door appears to be intact, complete with highlights and sidelights, although the original decorative glazing may have been lost.
The hipped roof is clad in slate and unusually it retains cast-iron cresting to the ridge line and below the first-floor windows. The three visible chimneys are rendered and are ornate with a frieze of brackets and paterae below the cornice and wythes with a lotus pattern above. Apart from the replacement verandah, the exterior appears intact.
Villa - Local Historical Themes
This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, rev. 2009):
3.3.3 Speculators and land boomers
8.4.1 Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion
8.6.1 Sharing houses
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2
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PRAHRAN TOWN HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0203
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FORMER POLICE STATION AND COURT HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0542
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FORMER RECHABITE HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0575
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