Hiawatha

The property at 17 Stephens Road, Healesville, is a long rectilinear allotment on the west side of Stephens Road. The house has a deep setback to the road, and is located in a treed setting. It is a large double-fronted single-storey weatherboard residence of c.1909, on a rectilinear plan, with a steeply pitched Dutch gable roof clad in green 'colorbond' roofing metal. A single tall red brick chimney with stepped brick cap is on the north roof plane. The house has a front verandah located under the main roof form, simply detailed with painted timber posts and crossed brackets. This adjoins a bay with a timber-framed double-hung sash window with narrow sidelights, over which is a timber fretwork and corrugated metal-clad window hood. The front door is a painted timber four-panelled door with a timber doorcase fitted with a toplight and side lights. A double-hung sash window with sidelights also faces onto the verandah. The property also has a landscaped cottage garden setting to the front, with a non-original timber picket fence and lych-gate set behind the central pedestrian gate and brick pathway to the front verandah. The outbuildings to the rear of the house, including the garage, have not been examined in detail.

How is it significant?

The property Hiawatha at 17 Stephens Road, Healesville, is of local historical and aesthetic/architectural significance.

Why is it significant?

Hiawatha is of local historical significance, as a substantial (former) guesthouse constructed in c.1909 by Florence Mabel Wood, who operated the guesthouse until her death in c.1932. Its construction coincided with the growth of guesthouse culture in Healesville, leading up to the peak in popularity in the post-World War I period. Wood also continued to operate the business into the era of guesthouse decline, in the face of more widespread car ownership and mobility, and the rising popularity of seaside holidays and motel-style accommodation. The property is located in an area of Healesville which was historically referred to as 'Blannin Hill', or more locally as 'The Major's Hill', after Major Alfred Blannin, the first President of the Shire of Healesville. Hiawatha is also of local aesthetic/architectural significance. While it is a comparatively plain Federation house, it is distinguished by its generous proportions and steeply pitched Dutch gable roof. Other elements of note include the slender chimney, simply detailed timber verandah, and windows with sidelights. The relative simplicity of its plan and massing, including the verandah being 'hollowed out' from the large square footprint, anticipates the simpler square house plans of the bungalow era; in fact the simplified massing seen here emerged as a dominant style in the years following the construction of this building.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House