Residence

C Listed - Local Significance

STATEMENT OFSIGNIFICANCE

The house at 46 Eastern Beach, Geelong, has significance as an unusual and reasonably intact example of a postwar Freestyle Bungalow style, with an Arts and Crafts-like picturesque arrangement of roof forms. It was originally built in 1909 (with major alterations in 1947) for Geelong timber merchant, Thomas Higgans, and was later owned by Ella Solomon, wife of Julius Solomon, Managing Director of the well-known and established Geelong Department store, Solomon's Pty. Ltd., from the 1920s.

The house at 46 Eastern Beach is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. Although the house has experienced some alterations, it still demonstrates original and unusual design qualities of an eclectic Federation and postwar Freestyle Bungalow style. These qualities include the Arts and Crafts-like picturesque arrangement of roof forms (clad in overpainted corrugated galvanised iron) and protruding spatial forms. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the prominent rendered polygonal tower and the squat square tower which is angled approximately 45o to the extended balconied section of the house, rendered weatherboard wall construction, main central gable and attic dormers, timberdetailing of the side balconies, lofty chimney stacks and lower section of the polygonal corner tower, subtle Art Deco lines and moulds applied to the verandah loggia, north-west tower, parapet of the polygonal tower and bellcast balcony panelling, segmentally-arched entrance loggia below the bellcast-like panelling and the timber framed windows. The decorative rendered fence and mature shrubbery, together with uninterrupted views to Corio Bay, contribute to the significance of the place. The house at 46 Eastern Beach is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with residential devleopments in Geelong in the Federation (c.1895-1915) and postwar (post 1945) periods. In particular, this house has associations with Thomas Higgans, original owner and Geelong timber merchant from 1909, having had the house designed by the prolific Geelong architects, Laird and Buchan. The house also has associations with a the prominent Solomon family from 19, as it was purchased as the family home by Ella Solomon, wife of Julius Solomon, Managing Director of the well-known and established Geelong Department store, Solomon's Pty. Ltd. The Solomon family had long associations with the property (which they named Lorisville, presumably after their daughter, Loris), owning the property until 1962.

Overall, the house at 46 Eastern Beach is of LOCAL significance.

REFERENCES

Sands and McDougall Street Directory, 1912-1962, 1961-70.

Geelong Town Council Rate Books, Bellarine Ward, 1910-1953, Geelong Historical Records Centre.

Certificate of Title, 18 June 1922, 8 September 1922, Titles Office, Melbourne.

Laird and Buchan, Specifications: Residence at Eastern Beach for Thomas Higgans, file H.563, Geelong Historical Records Centre.

Laird and Buchan Account Book 1908-1909, Geelong Historical Records Centre.

Geelong Advertiser, 10 July 1933. C. Demllo, 'Digressions', in the Investigator, vol.25, 1990, pp.171-172.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residence