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House, 65 Seaby Street, STAWELL

Location

65 Seaby Street STAWELL, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE

Level

Recommended for Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

The house at 65 Seaby Street, Stawell, makes a significant contribution to the predominantly single storey, Victorian styled streetscape of Seaby Street. This house has significance as an reasonably intact example of the Victorian style. Built in 1868 to a design by Robert Alexander Love for John Yabsley Wakeham, first store operator at Pleasant Creek in 1854 and prominent figure, the house has experienced some alterations that have been detrimental to the building fabric.

The house at 65 Seaby Street is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of the Victorian style. These qualities include the hipped roof form, together with the return concave verandah that projects at the front and sides. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the symmetrical composition from the front, single storey height, rendered brick cavity wall construction with stone quoins and dressings, galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, two substantial rendered brick chimneys, narrow eaves, central door opening with four panelled timber door and sidelights, timber and glazed French windows, timber verandah columns with timber framed cast iron valances and cast iron brackets, interior ceiling roses, ornate cornice in the entrance hall , and the commodious and dry cellar.

The house at 65 Seaby Street is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with residential developments in Stawell during the prosperous years of the gold rush in the late 1860s. In particular, this house was built in 1868 for John Yabsley and Elizabeth Wakeham, first storekeepers in Pleasant Creek from 1854. Wakeham was a prominent and influential figure in Stawell, finding fortune in mining interests that appear to have provided the funds to build this house. As a founding father of the town, Stawell closed for Wakeham's funeral in 1872. The house has further associations with the architect, Robert Alexander Love.

Overall, the house at 65 Seaby Street is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House