5 Avondale Road Armadale
5 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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5 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.5 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 Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Interwar Houses Study
Author: Bryce Raworth Pty Ltd
Year: 2014
Grading: A2Heritage Inventory Description
5 Avondale Road Armadale - Heritage Inventory Description
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.
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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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