Duplex
1 Albion Street and 3 Albion Street ESSENDON, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The pair of semi-detached dwellings at 1-3 Albion Street, Essendon, is significant. They were constructed c1940-41 as a rental property for Percy Wheeler.
The significant fabric includes the:
Original building and continuous roof form as a pair of detached dwellings;
tiled roofs and original chimneys;
unpainted face brickwork including panels of contrasting brickwork;
porches with parapet detailing;
door and window joinery
cream brick front fence and mild steel gates; and
garage of number 1 on the Fitzgerald Road frontage.
The carport to No 3 is not significant.
How is it significant?
1-3 Albion Street, Essendon, is of local architectural (representative) significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
The semi-detached pair at 1-3 Albion Street, Essendon, is a fine representative example of the Moderne style. The pair is distinguished by the decorative use of brickwork - here, cream with brown manganese accents - to create features such as the stepped chimneys with arched insets of brown brick in a chevron pattern, and the projecting brick porches with parapets feature a fin with contrasting manganese inlay and layered recessing at the edges. Its presence is heightened by the integration of the two mirror-image dwellings in a single building under a continuous roofline. Its significance is also enhanced by the retention of a highly intact setting, including matching front brick fences and mild steel gates, concrete front paths, and the matching garage to No 1 on the Fitzgerald Road frontage. (Criterion D)
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Duplex - Physical Description 1
1-3 Albion Street, Essendon, is a pair of semi-detached interwar dwellings designed in the Moderne style. The duplex sits on the northern side of the street on a level, corner site, and is set back behind an original low brick fence at the property's front (south) and west boundaries. The Moderne style is typified through the use of decorative accents of contrasting materiality, geometric patterning present in brickwork detailing, projecting masses of the porches and chimneys, and the horizontal emphasis of its form.
1-3 Albion Street, Essendon, has a low-hipped roof of brown, glazed terracotta tiles, and walls of cream face brick to the visible facades. The composition of the front facade is largely symmetrical and consists of a series of projecting and receding bays that create a mirror image in each residence. Each dwelling has a projecting hipped bay to the front facade, and a wing extending respectively to the east and west. Each projecting bay features a dominant brick chimney shaft with an arched panel of dark brown manganese brick inlaid with a chevron pattern and staggered ledges to the upper shaft. Those to the front facade have a large timber double-hung sash window either side. A central, receding bay, concealing the dwellings' internal party wall, has two groupings of three windows, with a central fixed pane and outer double-hung sashes. Projecting brick porches with high parapets feature an extending fin with contrasting manganese inlay and layered recessing at the edges to boldly announce the main entry of each residence.
At the west frontage to Fitzgerald Road, Number 1 retains its original, semi-detached motor garage of cream face brick with red brick on the side (north) wall, visually connected to the property by a simple brick wall. The garage has a low parapet with a squat, central fin in a similar arrangement to that of each porch, and a round window on its south wall. A simple timber side door sits between the garage and the property's northern boundary fence, and a low-lying timber picket fence of relatively recent date runs parallel to Albion Street, between the front fence and the garage, to separate the drive from the front garden. Number 3 has a detached and rather rudimentary modern carport to its east.
The front garden consists of a large grassed area with concrete paths (presumably early or original), a few trees, garden beds planted with shrubs along the exterior walls of the house and low-lying hedges and shrubs planted directly behind the front cream brick fence with squat piers and mild steel gates to each entry porch.
1-3 Albion Street, Essendon, is of veryhighintegrity with veryfewchanges visible to original or early elements of the place. The building retains its original building and roof forms, face brick walls, porches, and fenestration.
The integrity of the building is greatly enhanced by the very highlevel of intactness of these main elements, which include details such the original chimneys, tiled roofs, window joinery, unpainted face brickwork (including panels of contrasting bricks), and detailing to porches.
The integrity of the place overall is enhanced by the highlevel of intactness of both residences, which read as a unified whole, as well as the front fences which also link the two properties, gates, concrete front paths and driveways, and garage (at No. 1).
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - Moonee Valley 2017 Heritage Study
Author: Context
Year: 2019
Grading:
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ESSENDON RAILWAY STATION COMPLEXVictorian Heritage Register H1562
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FORMER CURATOR'S COTTAGEVictorian Heritage Register H1078
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FORMER MOONEE PONDS COURT HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H1051
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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1 Jackson StreetYarra City
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1 Lightfoot StreetYarra City
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1 Longfield StreetYarra City
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