Stella
174 Punt Road PRAHRAN, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Victorian villa at 174 Punt Road, built c.1884, is significant. The house was occupied and expanded by Edward and Elizabeth Newbigin from the 1880s to the early 1900s. Edward Newbigin (1848-1908) was a successful coal merchant and his family moved in fashionable social circles, often mentioned in the social columns of the day. He owned a number of properties in the area, including 170 Punt Road next door.
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 contributes to its significance. The early iron palisade fence, gate and bluestone plinth are significant.
The twentieth century alterations and additions such as the garage and contemporary paving and landscaping are not significant.
How is it significant?
The house and fence at 174 Punt Road, Prahran are of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonington.
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. Many of these houses, including numbers 170 and 174, were owned from the 1880s to the early 1900s by Edward Newbigin. Newbigin acquired the house at 174 Punt Road in 1873 and remodelled and expanded it systematically in the 1870s and 1880s. The Newbigin family resided there from 1873 until Edward Newbigin's death in 1908. 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 properties on Punt Road. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, the house is significant for its expression of the principal aesthetic characteristics of the nineteenth century Italianate villa type of housing. Its typical asymmetric design is varied by the adoption of a parapet that conceals the building's hipped roof and the secondary single-storey canted bay window to the ground floor beneath the verandah, as well as two-storey canted bays to the side elevations. The house is distinguished by its elegant run and cast cement render work, including beltcourses of a bas-relief rinceaux pattern (also used at the canted bay window parapet), slender colonnettes recessed at corners, and engaged Corinthian columns to the round-arched bay windows beside the front door. Other cement embellishments include the frieze of closely spaced eaves brackets set between rosettes below the cornice and Acanthus leaf impost mouldings to the windows of the front projecting bay to an otherwise plain render finish. The verandah cast-iron work is particularly delicate in design, incorporating a number of lacework patterns in the frieze, brackets and first-floor balustrade. The cast-iron posts have fine cast capitals. The fence is an intact surviving example of a nineteenth century iron palisade fence with gate and bluestone plinth. (Criterion E)
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Stella - Physical Description 1
Physical description
The residence at 174 Punt Road is a substantial two-storey Italianate villa that occupies a 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 contemporary landscaped front garden and the original and fine iron palisade fence with lion posts which are set on a high bluestone plinth with a central gate.
The building in its late 1880s expression, adopts a common late-Victorian asymmetrical form with a two-storey canted bay to one side and a two-storey verandah to the other. This form became popular during the 1880s, and in this respect the house at 174 Punt Road stands as a large but relatively typical suburban Italianate villa. In this instance the common model is varied by the adoption of a parapet that conceals the building's hipped roof and the secondary single-storey canted bay window to the ground floor beneath the verandah. The building's massing is more sculptural than usual with additional two-storey canted bays to the north and south side elevations (the northern one was constructed after 1896). The two-storey canted bay window fronting Punt Road also terminates in its own parapet. The main parapet returns along the northern elevation to encompass the northern canted bay and is finished in an open guilloche motif set between piers with tablet flower cast elements.
The house is distinguished by its elegant run and cast cement render work, including beltcourses of a bas-relief rinceaux pattern (also used at the canted bay window parapet), slender colonnettes recessed in corners, and engaged Corinthian columns to the round-arched bay windows beside the front door. Other cement embellishments include the frieze of closely spaced eaves brackets set between rosettes below the cornice and Acanthus leaf impost mouldings to the windows of the front projecting bay to an otherwise plain render finish. The eaves detailing continues with the parapet along the northern elevation.
The verandah cast-iron work (c1885) is particularly delicate in design, incorporating a number of lacework patterns in the frieze, brackets and first-floor baluster. The cast-iron posts have fine cast capitals.
Permit documentation from the City of Stonnington for minor alterations in 2003 indicates that the building was converted into four apartments prior to this date, which may have occurred as early as the 1950s and 1960s when the house was occupied as the Secondary Teachers' College Hostel (City of Stonnington Planning Permit 0056/03, 2003). An additional division of units occurred in 2008 (City of Stonnington Planning Permit 677/08, 2008). The exterior appears substantially intact, including those parts of the side elevations that are visible from the public realm, apart from the removal of the chimneys, the construction of a garage to the north side of the facade, and the addition of verandah brackets at first floor level.
Stella - 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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