Pirndoega
226 Punt Road PRAHRAN, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The villa formerly known as 'Pirndoega' at 226 Punt Road, Prahran is significant. It was built in 1891 for accountant William Howard Branston and his family.
It comprises a substantial single-storey Italianate villa of bichrome brick with a hipped roof and tall chimneys with heavy cornices and unusual cream brick wythes. It presents a symmetrical facade to Punt Road, comprising two projecting canted bays and an encircling verandah which returns to the main entrance along the south (side) elevation. It is set back behind its original iron palisade fence, posts and gate, set on a bluestone plinth. It is significant to the extent of its nineteenth century external form and fabric.
The twentieth-century garage and sheds are not of significance.
How is it significant?
'Pirndoega' at 226 Punt Road, Prahran is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, 'Pirndoega' at 226 Punt Road, Prahran, is a fine representative example of a substantial single-storey Italianate villa built for the middle-class residents of Prahran during the boom years of the 1880s and early 1890s, at a time when Punt Road constituted a prestigious address. It exhibits typical features of this type, including the hipped roof form with tall corniced chimneys, canted projecting bays, segmentally arched double-hung sash windows, and a generous return cast-iron verandah. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, 'Pirndoega' is distinguished by its generous scale, bichrome brickwork (although partially overpainted) and its refined detailing. Its encircling ogee-profile verandah is highly intact retaining its high-quality and non-standard cast-iron frieze and brackets on slender fluted columns. It retains its decorative tessellated tile floor with bluestone nosing. The unusual cream brick chimney wythes are also of note. The iron palisade fence, posts and gate enhances its original presentation. (Criterion E)
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Pirndoega - Physical Description 1
The villa formerly known as 'Pirndoega' is a substantial single-storey Italianate villa that is highly intact and distinctive for its generous size and refined details. It occupies a wide allotment on the east side of Punt Road, mid-block between Commercial Road and Athol Street in Prahran. The house is set back behind a narrow front garden and retains its original iron palisade fence, posts and gate set on a bluestone plinth.
Constructed in 1891, the polychrome brick building presents a symmetrical facade to Punt Road, with two canted bays to the front and an encircling ogee-profile verandah that returns along the southern elevation. The verandah terminates at a secondary projecting bay to the south elevation adjacent to the main entrance doorway on the south side elevation.
It has a hipped roof clad in terracotta tiles, which are likely to be a later change (i.e. from slate). The chimneys are constructed in dark Hawthorn bricks with cream brick bases and dressings to the heavy cornices. The curved wythes at the tops of the chimneys are also very unusually constructed of cream brick instead of the usual cement. The eaves have elaborate brackets which are closely spaced and set between a single red brick accent, and are continuous along both side elevations. The walls beneath the verandah are of dark Hawthorn brick with dressings of cream brick (which have been overpainted), expressed as wide dressings to the canted bay windows and as quoins to the external building corners. There is a continuous bluestone plinth (overpainted) to the building and as nosing around the intact verandah, laid with decorative tessellated tiles. The windows to the front are full height, segmentally-arched double-hung sashes. The entrance door is elaborate with a round arch surround with semi-circular glazed highlight.
The verandah is notable for its high quality and non-standard cast-iron patterning to the heavy frieze and brackets, with a range of floral motifs. It is supported on slender fluted columns which have intact bases and Corinthian capitals. At its north-west corner, the verandah continues past the external corner of the building, as if it was designed to return along the north elevation, reaffirming the symmetrical composition of the front as viewed and appreciated from Punt Road.
An aerial in 2016 shows that the footprint of the house is largely unchanged from its plan in the 1896 MMBW. A number of outbuildings are located at the rear of the property. Unsympathetic changes include the painting of the cream brick dressing of the facade and the brushwood fence that has been set behind the original iron palisade fence.
Pirndoega - Local Historical Themes
This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, rev. 2009):
8.2 Middle-class suburbs and the suburban ideal
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2
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MAJELLAVictorian Heritage Register H0783
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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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