The Briars - 3 Avondale Road Armadale
3 Avondale Road ARMADALE, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
Statement of significance
What is significant?
The pair of Italianate villas, 'The Briars' at 3 Avondale Road and the house at 5 Avondale Road, Armadale, both built in 1890. The two houses are single-storey dwellings with rendered brick walls and an asymmetrical plan form featuring a canted projecting bay and cast-iron verandah to the front facade of each.
Also the rendered brick stables at 3 Avondale Road, constructed in 1905, are significant.
The current front fences and rear extensions of both properties, as well as the garage of 3 Avondale Road, are not significant.
How is it significant?
3 and 5 Avondale Road are of local architectural and aesthetic significance, while the stables at 3 Avondale Road are of local significance for their associations and rarity.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, the two dwellings are fine and intact representative examples of Victorian Italianate villa residences built for middle-class residents of Armadale, of the sort that began to characterise the suburb in the 1880s and 1890s. The two near-identical villas exhibit typical features of this type including the asymmetrical plan form of a projecting canted bay to one side of a cast-iron verandah, ruled render finish, hipped roof clad in slate and rendered chimneys with decorative cornices. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, the two dwellings retain a high level of ornamentation executed in cast and run cement and other materials. Decorative elements of note include diaper patterning of the slate roofing, cast wythes and brackets to the chimney cornices, dog-tooth mouldings to verandah beams and to a window sill (sill of No. 3, only), vermiculated quoins and panels, scrolled keystones to window arches, acanthus leaves to impost blocks, and twisted colonnettes to window reveals (No. 5, only). (Criterion E)
The stables to the rear of No. 3 Avondale Road is a very rare and intact example of a nineteenth century stables complex in Stonnington. It is also of significance for its association with its owner and builder, James Wright, who was a prominent Melbourne builder and contractor. (Criteria B & H)
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The Briars - 3 Avondale Road Armadale - Physical Description 1
Physical description
The houses at 3 and 5 Avondale Road were built as two identical Italianate villas. They stand on the north-east corner of Avondale and Hampden roads, with no. 3 on a double block that has a long side boundary along Hampden Road.
Both houses sit at a slight elevation above Avondale Road, and their front doors are reached via two sets of steps. The first set, of three bluestone steps, is just within each front gate, while each front verandah is reached via another two bluestone steps. No. 3 retains its original curve masonry walls around the lower set of steps, as well as tessellated tiles to the front path and verandah floor that appear to be original. Neither house retains its original front fence, though no. 5 has a sympathetic reproduction iron palisade fence.
The front facade of both house can be described as follows: Each has rendered brick walls and an asymmetrical facade with a wide canted bay to the left-hand side, and a verandah to right-hand side. Both have features typical of the Italianate style, including a low-line M-profile hipped roof, clad in slates, rendered chimneys with a moulded cornice, pairs of brackets to the eaves, front verandahs with a convex roof set below the eaves and cast-iron columns and frieze-brackets, and front door surrounds with sidelight and highlight windows.The two houses have the following decorative details of note: diaper patterning to the slate roofs, with bands of semi-hexagonal and diamond-shaped tiles with crimped edges; cast wythes and brackets to the chimneys; a dog-tooth moulding to the verandah beam and below the window sill beneath the verandah (no. 3, only); and fine cast and run cement ornament. This includes vermiculated quoins to corners and as panels below the windows of the projecting bay, projecting window sills on corbels to the windows of the projecting bay, moulded round-arches to these same windows with scrolled keystones and impost blocks decorate with acanthus leaves. The ornament to no. 5 is slightly more elaborate, with twisted colonnettes in the reveals of the arched front windows.
The two houses also differ slightly due to a remodelling of no. 5 that took place c.1900-10. This included the replacement of the original six-panel door (which remains at no. 3) with an Edwardian two-panel door featuring one large and two small Art Nouveau leadlights. The sash window with sidelights beneath the verandah (which remains at no. 3) was replaced with a timber box bay window with casements and scalloped weatherboards to the base.Both houses have large rear additions, which are not visible when viewing from Avondale Road. The rear addition to no. 3 is visible from the far side of Hampden Road, and it has a sheer two-storey wall, but is set back behind the original extent of the house and has the same overall height (though the wall is taller). Views to it are blocked, in part by the c2000 double garage. The garage is of rendered masonry and adopts a parapeted gable form from the stable block.
The former stables at no. 3 stand in the north-west corner of the double block, adjoining Hampden Road. Their north wall forms part of the boundary with 17 Hampden Road. Like the house, they have rendered brick walls, and face south, into the site, but are obliquely visible from Hampden Road (see photo on page 1). A single sash window faces Hampden Road. The stables has a two-storey central bay, with single-storey wings on the west and east sides. This central wing is gable-fronted (facing south), with a parapet to the gable and corbelling beneath the eaves. At the apex of the gable is a vermiculated block. The small side wings have hipped roofs set behind parapets on the sides and rear. Some original sash and pivot windows appear to survive, while the hayloft door has been replaced with French doors. Other minor changes to openings, not visible from the street, may also be present.The Briars - 3 Avondale Road Armadale - Local Historical Themes
Thematic context
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
4.3.2 Changing Modes of Transport - from horses to motor vehicles
8.2 Middle-class suburbs and the suburban idealHeritage Inventory Description
The Briars - 3 Avondale Road Armadale - Heritage Inventory Description
Place history
From the early 1850s this land was part of a larger area defined as Crown Allotment 52 in the Parish of Prahran. The area was sparsely settled in the 1850s, according to the plan of Melbourne by James Kearney (Kearney 1855). In c.1881, much of the land in the immediate vicinity of the subject properties was subdivided, but the north side of Avondale Road (including the site of 3 and 5 Avondale Road) formed part of the south-western corner of the large estate of a Mr Borthwick. Opposite the site of 3 and 5 Avondale Road, and backing on to Hampden Road, was the large estate of local politician Robert Dyce Reid (Plan of subdivision of Parts of Crown portions 52 and 51, City of Prahran at Armadale, c.1881, SLV). The neighbouring allotments in Hampden, Avondale and Denbigh roads that were offered for sale in 1881 were described as being 'in close proximity to some of the noblest residences in the colony' (Argus, 2 September 1881, p. 2).
The dwellings at numbers 3 and 5 Avondale Road, Armadale, were built by 1890. In 1889 the properties were rated as vacant blocks, but in November 1890 there was a 7-roomed brick dwelling on each block, both owned by the Mercantile Bank. The occupants were Jane Clements (No. 3) and Henry Langlands, engineer (No. 5) (RB 1889, 1890, City of Prahran). A tender notice in May 1890 for 'labor [sic.], brick layers and scaffolding' at the corner of Hampden Street and Avondale Road may relate to the construction of the two houses that year (Age, 1 May 1890, p. 8). The identity of the advertiser is not provided. In June 1891, a notice appeared that water pipes for the Melbourne water supply were shortly to be laid in Avondale Road, Armadale, between Hampden Road and Auburn Grove (Age, 23 June 1891, p. 8).
The houses were built as a pair of matching detached villas. Both dwellings shared the same footprint, with a projecting bay, front verandah, chimney design and placement, and similar ornamentation. No. 3 Avondale Road occupies a large corner block. While it appears that there was sufficient room for this block to accommodate two house allotments, it was not subdivided for this purpose, thus providing room for a large garden and grounds. A large Liquidamber (Liquidamber styraciflua) in the front garden may be part of the early garden plantings.
In 1892 the pair of brick houses, of 7 rooms each, remained in the ownership of the Mercantile Bank, with occupants being Sidney Innes, accountant (No. 3) and Alexander H. Chomley (No. 5) (RB 1892, City of Prahran). Sidney Innes continued to occupy the house at No. 3 in 1898. That year, a death notice appeared for Ada Marian Innes, wife of S. Evelyn Innes, of 3 Avondale Road, Armadale (Argus, 13 January 1898, p. 1).
In 1900, the rate books list Samuel Bloomfield as the owner of 3 Avondale Road (with Thomas William Clark as occupant) as well as the adjacent vacant block, and the Mercantile Bank Assets Company as the owner of 5 Avondale Road, with Helen Gowan as occupant (RB 1900).
The MMBW Detail Plan of 1900 shows the two villas, with No. 3 occupying the larger (double) corner block. Both houses have a central front pathway with steps that lead to the front verandah. Both houses are shown with a rear yard and a detached washhouse with lavatory. The curve of the boundary fence of No. 3 Avondale Road, where it joins Hampden Road, follows the curve of Hampden Road to the south. (MMBW 1900).
The house at 3 Avondale Road was advertised for sale in 1903, when it was described as a well built and compact brick villa known as 'The Briars', situated at the corner of Hampden Road. It contained 'Drawing and Dining Rooms, Maids Room, Bath, Pantry, Laundry, with Stone Foundations, Slate Roof, Tiled Verandah' (Argus, 2 December 1903, p. 2)
James Simpson Green Wright (1866-1947) and his wife Isobel Jean moved to the house at 3 Avondale Road in 1904 from a previous residence in Toorak (Miles Lewis Index; Prahran Mechanics Institute Newsletter, No. 38, April 2005, p. 5 - claims 1905). Wright had married Isabel Jean McConvill in 1900 and they had three children (PMI Newsletter 2005). In 1909, a son was born to James and Isobel Jean Wright at 3 Avondale Road; the birth notice gives the address as 'The Briars' (Prahran Telegraph, 10 July 1909, p. 1). By 1905-06, Wright had erected double-storey brick stables at the rear of the north-west corner of the block (City of Prahran RB 1905-06).
James S.G. Wright, who had emigrated from Scotland, became a leading Melbourne builder and contractor, with offices in the city: in Market Street and later at 421 Collins Street. Wright was prominent in the early decades of the twentieth century, a period that saw considerable development in the industrial sector. He was president of the Master Builders Association in 1906-07 during the period of a long, drawn-out building dispute (Age, 22 December 1906, p. 14).
Wright won contracts to construct a number of factories and warehouses in Melbourne in the early decades of the twentieth century, with many incorporating concrete construction techniques. Many were large modern complexes, erected for some of Melbourne's leading manufacturers. Notable works included a warehouse for Goldsborough, Row and Co. in Kensington in 1906 (Melbourne HO1162); new premises for Johns and Waygood, 408-430 City Road, South Melbourne in 1909 (Port Phillip HO4; 'City of Port Phillip Heritage Review',2017, p. 3); and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Factory at Fishermans Bend, Port Melbourne, in 1940, which was contracted to J.S.G. Wright and Co. (Miles Lewis Index, ref 63358). He also built the Prahran Technical Art School, 140 High Street, Windsor, in 1915 (Stonnington HO53) (PMI Newsletter 2005, p. 5).
Wright was a well-connected businessman with a number of business interests and investments, including his role as a director of at least two 'no liability' mining companies. In 1909, he was listed as a director of the Mia Mia Gold Mining Co., a small company based in Redesdale, with architect Percy Oakden as a fellow director (Victorian Government Gazette, 22 January 1909, p. 2830), and in 1935 he was a director of the New England Tin Mines Co. Ltd (Daily Commercial News and Shipping List, 29 August 1935, p. 4). In 1920, he was a founding director of the public company, National Portland Cement Ltd; fellow directors included prominent Melbourne businessmen Sir John Monash and BHP Director A.E. Bowes Kelly (Table Talk, 2 September 1920, p. 25). He held at least one other property in 1924-25, when he was rated as the owner of a house in Caulfield (City of Caulfield rate books, accessed via Ancestry.com).
James Wright died in 1947 and his Probate papers are held by the Public Record Office Victoria. These would provide full details of his assets at the time of death, and a description of the house. His widow Isobel Jean Wright died in 1950.
In 1949, an advertisement appeared in the 'Wanted to Rent' column in the Age for: 'Garage or space car, via Hampden-rd, Armadale MXY 330 ext 369' (Age, 2 April 1949, p. 11). This may relate to the property at 3 Avondale Road.
From 1969 to the present day (2017), 3 Avondale Road has been the home of cooking school The French Kitchen, run by Diane Holigue, who is the author of a cookbook by the same name published in 1983 as well as A Lifetime of Cooking, Teaching and Writing from the French Kitchen (2012).
Under the ownership of Diane and Gerard Holigue, the house at 3 Avondale Road was enlarged around 1990 with a two-storey rear extension set behind the front three rooms and designed to be no higher than the original roofline. This extension was enlarged slightly in 2000, and a large garage built along the Hampden Road boundary (Property File).
In 1905-06, No. 5 Avondale Rd was occupied by Helen Gowan and owned by the Mercantile Bank of Australia. It was rated as an 8-roomed brick residences (RB 1905-06). Later owners of 5 Avondale Road include Sophia G. Farrar in 1921-22 and Bingley A. Bowen in 1925-26 (RB, 1921-22, RB 1925-26).Sources
Age, 1 May 1890, p. 8.
Age, 23 June 1891, p. 8.
Age, 22 December 1906, p. 14.
Age, 2 April 1949, p. 11.
Ancestry.com
Argus, 2 September 1881, p. 2.
Argus, 13 January 1898, p. 1.
Argus, 2 December 1903, p. 2.
Butler, Graeme 2013. Heritage Assessment of 2-50 Elizabeth Street, Kensington, in 'Heritage Evidence: Amendment C207, Arden Macaulay Heritage Review', prepared for City of Melbourne.
'City of Port Phillip Heritage Review', 2017.
City of Prahran, Rate Books, 1901-1930.
Daily Commercial News and Shipping List, 29 August 1935, p. 4.
Commonwealth of Australia. Electoral Rolls.
Hubbard, Timothy 'Italianate Style' in Goad, Philip & Willis, Julie (eds.) 2012, The Enclyclopedia of Australian Architecture, Cambridge University Press.
Kearney, James 1855. Melbourne and its Suburbs. Melbourne. (State Library of Victoria)
MMBW Detail Plan no. 996, dated 1900, City of Prahran. (State Library of Victoria).
Launceston Examiner, 17 March 1938, p. 1.
Lewis, Miles. Australian Architecture Index.
Plan of Subdivision of Parts of Crown portions 52 and 51, City of Prahran at Armadale, c.1881. (State Library of Victoria).
Prahran Mechanics Institute Newsletter, No. 37, Feb 2005.
Prahran Mechanics Institute Newsletter, No. 38, April 2005.
Prahran Telegraph, 10 July 1909, p. 1.
Property File for 3 Avondale Road, City of Stonnington.
Sands and McDougall. Melbourne Directories.
Table Talk, 2 September 1920, p. 25.
Victorian Government Gazette, 22 January 1909, p. 2830.
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ARMADALE PRIMARY SCHOOLVictorian Heritage Register H1640
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ARMADALE HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0637
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MANDEVILLE HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0676
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