Park Street Precinct

Location

87-117 & 78-108 PARK STREET, MOONEE PONDS, MOONEE VALLEY CITY

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Park Street precinct is a residential area, which comprises housing constructed from c.1890 to c.1925. The following features contribute to the significance of the precinct:

- all the houses within the precinct, and the front fences at nos. 86 & 88. The houses at 86, 87, 88, 93 & 108 are Significant, all other houses (except for the units at no.82) are Contributory.
- the overall consistency of housing form (hipped or hip and gable roofs, predominantly single storey), materials and detailing (weatherboard, imitation Ashlar or face brick, corrugated metal slate or tile roofs, verandahs with cast iron or timber frieze decoration, render or brick chimneys), detached siting (small front setbacks and narrow side setbacks) and low front fences.
- streetscape materials such as bluestone kerb and channel and bluestone laneways.

Non-original alterations and additions to the Contributory houses and the units at 82 Park Street are not significant.

How is it significant?
The Park Street precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?
Historically, it demonstrates the housing boom in Moonee Ponds during the late Federation/Edwardian and early interwar period, while the remnant Victorian houses are associated with the first phase of suburban development in the late nineteenth century. The predominant Federation/Edwardian and interwar housing stock interspersed with Victorian era dwellings is representative of the residential areas that developed during that period and is of note for the fine collection of bungalows. (Criteria A & D)

Aesthetically, it is an enclave of predominantly Federation/Edwardian and interwar housing including Queen Anne villas and Bungalows with characteristic, form, materials and detailing and good visual cohesion due to the consistency of built form and overall quality of much of the housing including several fine examples of interwar bungalows. The setting of the houses is complemented by traditional public realm materials such as bluestone kerb and channel and bluestone laneways. (Criterion E)

Of note within the precinct are the following houses:

- no.86. This is a very intact Arts & Crafts Bungalow. Of note are the prominent shingled gables and the verandah which features tapered rendered piers that project through the roof and frame an arch (the arch is repeated in the windows of the paired timber entry doors behind) edged in bi-chrome brick and have simple curved brackets. It is complemented by an early low brick fence with brick piers and simple tubular steel balustrade. (Criteria D & E)

- no.87. This is an intact example of an interwar bungalow, which has an unusually complex hip and gable roof form, with a projecting gabled porch at the front and a skillion porch at the side, both with balustrades with narrow vertical slots, while the corner windows with projecting pergola-like rafters above are another distinctive feature. (Criterion D)

- no.88. This is a very intact Arts & Crafts Bungalow. Probably architect-designed, this has a Jerkinhead roof clad in terracotta shingles and features a massively proportioned two level porch/balcony with a hipped roof and an arched opening below and a square opening (with inset slender columns) flanked by massive piers. Multi-pane French doors open to the balcony and there are shallow bow windows on either side of the porch. The walls are rendered with dark bricks used at the base of the wall and lower part of the piers and around the arched opening. It is complemented by an early or original rendered fence with tapered square capped piers (with tall piers marking the vehicular entry) and a simple tubular steel balustrade. (Criteria D & E)

- no.93. This is a very intact and well detailed Arts & Crafts Bungalow, which is gable fronted with characteristic arched openings to the porch. The intact original finishes that include red bricks to the lower walls and as decorative quoining to the rendered upper walls, as soldier courses of clinker brick, and timber shingles (painted a traditional dark green)to the gable ends, that in the main gable extend to form a hood over the window and rest on modillions over the porch are notable. (Criterion D)

- no.108. This example, with walls of weatherboard and render, is of note for the nested triple-gable form, with timber screen to the front gable. There is a three-side bay window to the front gable and the verandah rests on paired posts set on rendered piers. (Criterion D)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct