Residence

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

This pair of early timber cottages, portion of which dates from the early 1860s, with additions in the 1879s and 1880s, has regional historical significance for a long association with the Pile family of builders, carpenters and stonemasons. The building trade was of great importance in the Geelong district from a very early time. James Pile, owner of the property in 1861, built the Noble Street Wesleyan Church, which has been described as quotone of the earliest and most substantial of the structures erected by the Wesleyan Methodists in the first two decades of settlement in victoriaquot. Building workers were associated with the pair of cottages at least until the 1930s. They have regional architectural significance as a remarkably intact pair of cottages, partly early, but illustrating the developing needs of one family over 50 years, with their various visible additions. Their unusual relationship to their site is of particular interest. They also evidence the settlement pattern of this part of Newtown 130 years ago.

References

Newtown rate book 1861-62, South Ward, Nos. 985, 986

Ibid 1870 Nos 902, 903

Ibid 1871 Nos 902, 903

Ibid 1873-74 Nos 902, 903

Ibid 1875-76 Nos 899, 900, 902, 903; 1877-78 Nos 899, 900, 902, 903

Ibid 1888-89 Nos 948, 949

Ibid 1890-91 Nos 998, 999; 1895-96 Nos 1138, 1139

Ibid 1911-12 Nos 1291, 1292

A Willingham, Geelong Regional Commission Study, Sheet 322

Gladys Seaton, Model Borough, City of Newtown, 1983, p34

Newtown Rate book 1916-1917 Nos 1433-34

Ibid 1919-20 Nos 1455-56

Ibid 1927 Nos 1766, 1767

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residence