HOUSE

33 Thomas Street, Moonee Ponds, a bluestone mid-Victorian house, built c1877, is significant.

Significant fabric includes:

original single-storey, symmetric building form oriented towards the west;

original hipped roof forms;

basalt walls, stone window sills, and brick quoins; and

original pattern of openings.

The rear extension, verandah and fence are not significant.

How is it significant?

33 Thomas Street, Moonee Ponds, is of local historical significance and rarity value to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?

33 Thomas Street, Moonee Ponds, is historically significant as an early house in Moonee Valley, dated to the 1870s, and predating the 1888 subdivision of this area as the Hoddle Estate. Its orientation to the west, now a side boundary, is a tangible illustration of its pre-subdivision origins. The physical form and fabric of the house are expressive of this early date, particularly the use of bluestone (basalt) dimension stone with more expensive brick dressings to window openings. The M-hipped roof form is in keeping with its mid-Victorian build date, without the level or ornamentation seen on Italianate houses from the mid-1880s onward. (Criterion A)

33 Thomas Street is a rare example of the use of stone in residential construction in Moonee Valley. Stone, Moonee Ponds, is an atypical residential building material and rare amongst places on the Heritage Overlay. Houses in the City of Moonee Valley are most commonly of brick or timber construction. Bluestone was the first stone to be used in the Melbourne area, and is indicative of the early phase of development. 33 Thomas Street is a rare example of a house using bluestone as its main construction material, with only one other example identified (HO303 24 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington). (Criterion B)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House