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Two storey building, 106-108 Napier Street, ST ARNAUD
Location106-108 Napier Street ST ARNAUD, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE LevelRecommended for Heritage Overlay |
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Statement of Significance
The two-storey building at 106-108 Napier Street, St. Arnaud, makes a significant architectural contribution to the northern section of the commercial streetscape. It appears to have been erected as early as 1872 and was known as 'Criterion House' by 1892 when it was occupied by Arch Richie, who was a Draper and Importer. In the earlier decades of the 20th century the building was owned by the United Friendly Society, who ran a dispensary in one of the ground floor shops and held meetings in the first floor meeting room. While the upper floor of the building is largely intact, the ground floor and verandah have experienced a number of alterations. Although altered, the two-storey building at 106-108 Napier Street, is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It continues to demonstrates a number of original design qualities of a Late Victorian Free Classical style. These qualities include the central, shallow pedimented parapet flanked by a balustraded parapet with rectangular piers at the ends, the highly decorative and dentillated cornice that projects slightly at the centre to account for the projecting pedimented parapet above the window bay below, triple consoles below the parapet piers, and the early unpainted brick chimney, which has an early rendered, bracketed and widely projecting top. Other intact qualities include the central window bay with its timber framed double hung windows, the 'U.F.S. Meeting Room' signage in the lower pane of the central upstairs window, the Corinthian pilasters supported on pedestals with incised rectangular motifs and linked with a balustrade that accentuate the central window bay, the slightly projecting stringcourses projecting from the top of the window pedestals, and the projecting, smoothly rusticated blockwork forming elongated pilasters at the sides of the facade. The two-storey building at 106-108 Napier Street, is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with commercial developments in St. Arnaud in the 19th century, possibly as early as 1872 and certainly by 1892 when it was known as 'Criterion House', and is particularly associated with the United Friendly Society, who ran a dispensary in one of the ground floor shops for many years and held meetings in the first floor meeting room. Overall, the two-storey building at 106-108 Napier Street, St. Arnaud, is of LOCAL significance.
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