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ASCOT VALE FIRE STATION (FORMER) & RESIDENCE
Location17 & 19 FERGUSON STREET, ASCOT VALE, MOONEE VALLEY CITY LevelIncluded in Heritage Overlay |
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Statement of Significance
What is significant? Non-original alterations and additions to the buildings are not significant.
How is it significant?
Why is it significant?
The former Ascot Vale Fire Station, constructed in 1906, at 17
Ferguson Street and the adjoining former fireman's residence at 19
Ferguson Street Ascot Vale, are significant. The former Ascot Vale
Fire Station is a Federation red brick building, of a scale similar to
a single storey shop, built to the frontage and the side boundaries.
The facade has no pedestrian doors; there is a square vehicular
opening with a concrete lintel and a steel I-beam projecting above it.
To the right-hand side is a double hung timber window with a flat
brick arched lintel and bluestone sill, all of domestic scale. The
gabled roof is concealed by the flat parapet, which is detailed with a
stringcourse, cornice and coping using moulded bricks. The parapet
returns at each side before raking down to become an angled wall. One
chimney with a terracotta pot is visible.The adjoining house at no.19
is a typical double-fronted late Victorian Italianate timber villa
with a M-hip roof. The symmetrical facade is clad in ashlar board and
features tripartite windows on either side of the entrance door, which
has a top light. There are two rendered chimneys with stringcourses
and cornices. The verandah with cast iron frieze may be a sympathetic reproduction.
The former Ascot Vale Fire Station and residence are of local
historical significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
It is historically significant as a representative example of a
small suburban fire station, which demonstrates the simple buildings
constructed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in the early twentieth
century. The adjoining house is important for its historic
associations, as the residence for firemen at the station from the
early 1900s until its closure in 1927. It demonstrates how firemen
with families often lived off site as accommodation was only provided
for single men at fire stations until the Metropolitan Fire Brigade
changed its policy to encourage 'married life' for firemen and began
to construct fire stations with integrated quarters suitable for
families.(Criteria A & D)
Group
Utilities - Fire Control
Category
Fire Station