Parthenon Flats

'Parthenon Flats' at 57 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds, is significant. It was constructed in c1941 for Georgia and Arthur Raftopoulos, owners of the Spot Café in Melbourne.

The significant fabric includes:

original building and roof forms and fenestrations;

original building setbacks with generous front and side garden spaces;

terra-cotta roof tiles and chimneys;

unpainted face brick walls;

boxed eaves;

open stairwells with reinforced concrete stairs and metal hand rails;

open porches and cantilevered concrete slabs above ground floor entrances;

door and window joinery;

low brick fence to both street frontages and curved concrete path; and

original bank of garages.

How is it significant?

'Parthenon Flats' is of local historical and architectural (representative) significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?

'Parthenon Flats' are historically significant for their illustration of the higher housing densities that began to appear in the municipality around World War II, marking a change from the detached villa character seen previously in suburbs like Moonee Ponds and Essendon. (Criterion A)

'Parthenon Flats' are an intact and representative example of late interwar Moderne flats, built at a time when architectural forms were becoming far more austere, both under the influence of Modernism and the war. Despite the lack of showy curves or corner windows, a high level of visual interest was created by the use of four brick colours in strong horizontal bands balanced by the delicate verticals of the chimney and stairwell. The mild-steel name above the entry adds a stylish and up-to-date note. The flats are enhanced by the survival of their original setting, including the low boundary fence in matching two-toned brick, a curved concrete pedestrian path, and the bank of garages along the secondary frontage. (Criterion D)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Flat