St Marys Primary School & Hall
190 Myers Street, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No 216671
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Statement of Significance
C Listed - Local Significance
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
St Mary's Primary School
St. Mary's Roman Catholic School, 162-190 Myers Street, Geelong, has significance as a predominantly intact and locally rare example of an early twentieth century Roman Catholic School building in the City of Greater Geelong. Built in 1919 on land originally reserved for a Roman Catholic Grammar School, St. Mary's School was designed by the local architect, Thomas Slevin. It has served as a Catholic School until the present day (2008). St. Mary's School represents only one of two early 20th century Catholic Schools in Geelong, the other being St. Patrick's School, Geelong West, built in 1911. Overall, St. Mary's School is in good condition, apart from the deteriorated Barrabool sandstone dressings.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic School, 162-190 Myers Street is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2, E.1). It demonstrates original design qualities for an early 20th century era school building. These qualities include the T form plan articulated by single storey gable roof forms clad in terra cotta tiles, parapeted and stepped gable ends with concrete copings and the central entrance opening on the Myers Street facade constructed of Barrabool stone and comprising an arch supported by round Doric columns. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the face red brick wall construction, terra cotta roof ridge decoration, galvanised steel ventilation stacks, narrow rectangular lancet ventilators with Barrabool stone lintels and sills in the gable ends, Barrabool stone bands in the vestigial brick piers of the stepped gable ends, bluestone entrance steps, paired timber framed multi-paned timber and glazed main entrance doors with a multi-paned fanlight above, concrete window lintels, Barrabool stone window sills which extend across the facades to form stringcourses, timber framed twelve paned double hung windows with three paned highlights (arranged singularly or in banks of four), and the small timber framed three paned highlight windows on the west facade. The adjacent gabled brick outbuilding between the School building and the neighbouring Parish Hall also contributes to the significance of the place.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic School, 162-190 Myers Street, is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A.4, H.1). It is associated with the development and progress of St. Mary of the Angels Roman Catholic Church and particularly Catholic education in Geelong from the early 20th century until the present day (2008). Designed by Thomas Slevin, the School building was opened on 16 November 1919 by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix, who declared that it was one of the finest schools in the archdiocese.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic School, 162-190 Myers Street, is socially significant at a LOCAL level (AHC G.1). It is recognised and valued by sections of the Geelong community for religious and educational reasons, as a symbol of their faith and their history of local participation in primary school education.
Overall, St. Mary's Roman Catholic School, 162-190 Myers Street, is of LOCAL significance.
St Mary's School
Architecturally, an early example of classicising influence on the catholic Church which was to translate into the more common Free Romanesque revivals of the early 1900s (ie AA Fritsch) and part of a significant public building group along Myers Street South.Historically, a long term public building in Geelong.
REFERENCES
St Mary's Hall
References
The Advocate, 6 July 1918, p.13; 21 September 1918, p.15; 26 April 1919, p.16; 28 June 1919, p.14; 30 August 1919, p.14; 11 October 1919, p.17; 22 November 1919, p.18; 21 February 1920, p.16; & 2 February 1922, p.4.
E.M. Blake, Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, vol.2, Education Department, Melbourne, 1973.
W. Brownhill & I. Wynd, The History of Geelong and Corio Bay With Postscript 1955-1990, postscript edn., The Geelong Advertiser Pty Ltd, Geelong, 1990, pp.163-165.
Taylor's Map of Geelong, 1854, State Library of Victoria map collection.
Investigator: The Magazine of the Geelong Historical Society, vol.21, no.1, March 1986, p.10.
M. Lewis (ed.), Australian Architectural Index, University of Melbourne, Carlton, 2000.
Graeme Butler & Associates, City of Geelong Urban Conservation Study 1991.
D. Rowe & W. Jacobs, 'Former Loreto College, Dawson Street North, Ballarat', Conservation Management Plan, April 2007.
S. Zada, 'Biographical Family Report for Thomas Daniel Slevin', February 2008.
St Mary's Hall
MUAI:SOFFY p 52f
A 22.8.91
Ibid
GA 1.3.92/2
A 8/6/18-9
A 11.10.19.7
SOSSY, p 24f
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St Marys Primary School & Hall - Physical Description 1
DESCRIPTION
St Mary's School
St. Mary's Catholic Primary School, 162-190 Myers Street, Geelong, is set on a substantial site that also includes St. Mary's Parish Hall (included on the Victorian Heritage Register), a small brick interwar gabled building between the school and the hall, rear later 20th century gymnasium, rear later 20th century gabled outbuilding, rear tennis courts and a late Victorian timber dwelling fronting Benson Street. The Myers, Bellerine and Benson Street boundaries of the school site have tubular steel and cyclone wire fencing, with mature trees and shrubs behind. Between the school and hall buildings and fronting onto Myers Street are open areas paved in concrete.
The single storey, face brick, interwar era St. Mary's School building is characterised by a T form plan, with a gable roof form traversing the site and a second more elongated gable perpendicular to it at the rear. These roof forms are clad in early terra cotta tiles and are adorned with terra cotta ridge decoration. A series of early paired galvanised steel ventilation stacks punctuate the roofline. Other features of the design are the parapeted and stepped gable ends with concrete copings. The gables are crowned by Barrabool stone cappings at the apex above which are terra cotta crosses. The gable ends feature early narrow rectangular lancet ventilators with Barrabool stone lintels and sills. Early Barrabool stone bands further define the vestigial brick piers of the stepped gable ends.
The wing fronting Myers Street has a symmetrical composition defined by the original central entrance portico. It has an early arched opening with a punctuating keystone and is supported by Doric columns, all of which are constructed of Barrabool sandstone. The original sandstone parapet that once surmounted the arched opening has been removed and the roof replaced with introduced corrugated zincalume. The entrance is accessed by a series of early bluestone steps. Within the portico is another arched opening supported by vestigial columns and paired timber framed multi-paned timber and glazed doors with a multi-paned fanlight above.
The symmetry of the front wing is also defined by the flanking early window bays having early concrete lintels and projecting Barrabool sandstone sills that extend across the facade forming stringcourses. The timber framed double hung twelve paned windows (with three paned highlights) are arranged singularly, forming five bays each side of the central entrance.
The east (Bellerine Street) facade has four bays of early banks of windows with concrete lintels and Barrabool stone sills that also extend to form a stringcourse. The timber framed double hung twelve paned windows (with three paned highlights, similar to the front windows) are arranged in banks of four. A flat roofed wing with timber framed entrance doors and windows also fronts onto Bellerine Street, providing a link between the original southern end of the school building and the later 20th century gymnasium.
On the west facade is a gabled brick addition behind the front (Myers Street) wing, together with high, small early timber framed three paned windows.
Condition
Overall, the school building appears to be in good condition. However, the Barrabool stone dressings show signs of deterioration. This includes the arched entrance, window sills and stringcourses, gable apexes and the lintels and sills in the gable ventilators
St Mary's Hall
Some of the fruit of Fifty Years shows this grand building soon after its construction, revealing that little has changed since but the substitution of four-metre chin-wire fence for an ornamental timber picket and paling front fence. The cement work was also lighter in colour and the painted details in different tones.
Elevated in the 'pagan' Greek temple the chosen style is unusual for the Catholic Church, being more akin to Baptist or Congregational desigins. However, it follows loosely in the classical Baroque revival manner of St Francis Xaviers College, Kew and, more closely, the impressive Sacred Heart Church, Rathdowne Street, Carlton (1897-8); the architects, Reed Smart and Tappin, being responsible. This latter example provoked the observation that it was '..in style a departure from the unusual, ecclesiastical architecture of the colonies, being Renaissance and ..resembling.. roman churches. StMary's Hall preceded the above examples but post-dated the only other major classical church at St Kilda West.
External Integrity
Generally original except for unsympathetic replacement of the front picket fence.
Streetscape
Closely related to the adjoining Catholic school and the commencement of a street elevation of architecturally important design.
Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Geelong - Geelong City Urban Conservation Study
Author: Graeme Butler
Year: 1993
Grading:
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FORMER GEELONG WOOL EXCHANGEVictorian Heritage Register H0622
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FORMER SCOTTISH CHIEFS HOTELVictorian Heritage Register H0662
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CORIO VILLAVictorian Heritage Register H0193
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