Cullean
5 Wattletree Road ARMADALE, STONNINGTON CITY
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
Statement of significance
What is significant?
'Cullean' at 5 Wattletree Road, Armadale, is significant. It is a large single-storey Italianate villa with rendered masonry walls and a slate-clad roof. The house was built in 1888-89 for real estate auctioneer William McIlwrick as his family residence.
The house is significant to the extent of its nineteenth-century external form and fabric, particularly the main (south and east) facades and the roofscape with its complex hipped forms and chimneys.
The high front paling fence, post-1961 additions to the rear, and the blocks of flats to the rear and to the east of 'Cullean' are not significant.
How is it significant?
'Cullean' at 5 Wattletree Road, Armadale is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, 'Cullean' is a fine and highly intact representative example of a substantial Victorian Italianate villa residence built for middle-class residents of Armadale, of the sort that began to characterise the suburb in the 1880s and 1890s. 'Cullean' exhibits typical features of this type including the asymmetrical plan form with a projecting canted bay at each end of the return cast-iron verandah with tessellated tiles, intact ruled render finish, hipped roof clad in slate, rendered chimneys with heavy cornices, and bracketed eaves. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, 'Cullean' is distinguished by its high level of intact detail executed in cast and run cement render. This includes panelling to the faces of the two rendered chimneys, acanthus-leaf brackets below the chimney cornice; panelling between the eaves bracket of the roof, and run label moulds with acanthus-leaf imposts to the segmentally arched windows. Of particular importance and unusual in the municipality are the incised patterns on the rendered walls, in stylised floral designs inspired by Charles Eastlake. (Criterion E)
-
-
Cullean - Physical Description 1
Physical description
'Cullean' is a large, single-storey Italianate villa which stands on the north side of Wattletree Road near its junction with Dandenong Road. It sits on a deep and wide block of land with a large front garden setback. The site has been redeveloped for use as an aged care home and two apartment buildings have been built around it, replacing the east side and rear gardens. The post-war flats in the side garden are two-storeys in height, and mimic the deep front setback of the villa, which lessens their presence in the streetscape. The flats at the rear are not visible from the street. A wide driveway has been created in front of the side flats, with paved parking in front of it and a driveway down the side, adjacent to the villa. Despite this, a substantial garden has been retained directly in front of the villa, hidden behind a modern timber paling fence.
The villa has rendered walls and a slate-tiled roof. It is asymmetrical in form, as was popular for Italianate villas, with a projecting square bay on the west side of the front facade, and a semi-hexagonal projecting bay at the centre of the east side elevation. Between the projecting bays is a return verandah.
Apart from this asymmetrical composition, the villa exhibits many features that typify the Italianate style, including a low-line M-profile hipped roof, bracketed eaves and chimneys, and cast-iron detail to the verandah. The verandah is supported on slim cast-iron Corinthian columns, with a cast-iron frieze set in a timber frame with associated brackets below - a configuration common in the 1870s and early 1880s. It retains the original flooring of tessellated tiles with bullnose bluestone edging.
The villa exhibits a high level of intact detail executed in cast and run cement render. This includes panelling to the faces of the two rendered chimneys, as well as acanthus-leaf brackets below the chimney cornice; panelling between the eaves bracket of the roof, run label moulds with acanthus-leaf imposts to the segmentally arched windows, and stop-chamfering to the window reveals. The most distinctive ornament of the villa are large geometric designs of a stylised flower and foliage which are incised on the walls beneath the return verandah and on the face of the front projecting bay.
No external alterations to the physical fabric villa were noted.
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2
-
-
-
-
-
ARMADALE PRIMARY SCHOOLVictorian Heritage Register H1640
-
ARMADALE HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0637
-
LIND HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H2387
-
-