Stonyhurst and Athol Estates Precinct

The Stonyhurst and Athol Estates Precinct, comprising 1-29 and 4-32 Fairmount Road, 2-30A and 7-23A Miami Street, 471-483 Tooronga Road, and 347-357 Auburn Road, Hawthorn East, is significant. The houses, duplexes and triplexes were built predominantly in the interwar period. Subdivided in the early 1920s as the Athol and Stonyhurst estates, two of the original early Victorian villas from whose grounds the subdivisions were created remain extant (though modified); ‘Athol’ and ‘Fairmount’ villa at 8 Miami Street and 6 Fairmount Road respectively. 

 

The interwar Mediterranean style triplex at 7-11 Miami Street is individually significant. 

 

Original front fences at 8-8A Fairmount Road and 14, 15, 16, 17, 18-20, and 19-19A Miami Street are significant. The garages at 8 Fairmount Road, 7-11, 19A and 28 Miami Street, and 481 Tooronga Road are significant.

 

Non-original alterations and additions to the houses in the precinct are not significant, including second storey and other additions, replacement windows, new window openings, and new garages.

The Stonyhurst and Athol Estates Precinct is of local historic, aesthetic and architectural significance to the City of Boroondara.

Historically, the Stonyhurst and Athol Estates Precinct provides important evidence of the development of Hawthorn East in response to the opening of the railway in the late nineteenth century, and to subsequent intensification of suburban development that followed, associated with the intensive boom in residential subdivision between 1910-40, and the population expansion between 1911 and 1933. The early 1920s subdivision pattern and the interwar housing stock of the precinct provides strong and clear evidence of the suburban intensification that followed electrification of the railway in 1922. While ‘Fairmount’, at 6 Fairmount Road, and ‘Athol’, at 8 Miami Street, have both been altered, they remain legible as Victorian-era residences oriented to Auburn Road, and as such provide important evidence of the original Victorian era properties along Auburn Road, whose were subdivided in 1921 and 1922 to create the Stonyhurst and Athol estate subdivisions. (Criterion A)

 

Architecturally, the precinct is significant as a representative example of intact areas of medium and smaller homes in the south of Boroondara from the interwar period in a range of interwar architectural styles, including California Bungalow and interwar Old English, Mediterranean and Spanish Mission revival styles. Mostly the houses were developed over a relatively short two-decade period, which contributes to the visual unity of the precinct. Clusters of houses built to the same and similar designs enhance the visual cohesiveness of the precinct. A relatively high proportion of single storey duplex and triplex housing of high architectural quality and detailing distinguishes the precinct. (Criterion D)   

 

7-11 Miami Street is of individual significance as a skilfully designed example of a triplex, distinguished by a number of features associated with the interwar Mediterranean architectural style. It has been assessed separately as an individually significant place (refer to separate citation for 7-11 Miami Street, Hawthorn East, HO771). It makes an important contribution to the historical and visual unity of the precinct, in particular for its architectural style and materiality, and the triplex form of the building. (Criterion E)