'HAWTHORN HOUSE'

Hawthorn House (or Hawthorn Villa) at 23 Mangarra Road, Canterbury, is significant.

It is a two-storey timber Italianate house built in 1890 for owner-occupier Henry Alger.

It is significant to its nineteenth-century fabric. Single-storey additions to the side and rear elevations and the front picket fence are not significant.

How is it significant?

Hawthorn House is of local historical (rarity) and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.

Why is it significant?

Hawthorn House is historically significant as one of a small number of nineteenth-century two-storey timber houses in Boroondara and the Melbourne metropolitan area, a type which was even less common after the 1870s. In comparison to the other examples in Boroondara and Significant houses in other municipalities, it is also distinguished by its high level of (intact) decorative detail. The unusual detailing appears to be a signature of its unknown designer, as seen at the nearby 'Sassafrass' (13 Mangarra Road). (Criterion B)

Hawthorn House is aesthetically significant for its exceptionally fine timber detailing and unusually shaped front bay window. Particular features of significance include the variation on the shape of the traditional bay window of four facets rather than the more traditional five, ornament to this window including a double fascia with scalloped and dentilated bands, barley-sugar twisted colonettes between the double-hung sash windows, and ruby flashed glass margin glazing to the side windows. A similar double fascia (scalloped and dentilated) is also used for the upper floor of the verandah. Other fine detail includes the pyramidal quoining to corners (complementing the ashlar-look boards), and the very slender chamfered timber verandah posts with rectangular cast-iron Corinthian capital (only a few capitals remain). (Criterion E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House