The Pines

57 Vanberg Road, Essendon, a Victorian era villa, built in 1887 and subsequently remodelled, in a mature garden setting, is significant.

Significant elements include the:

- original (Victorian era) and subsequent (Edwardian and Interwar eras) building and roof forms;

- slate roof, chimneys, unpainted face brickwork;

- Interwar verandah including piers and balustrades, Edwardian Queen Anne gable ends including the decorative timber finial and barge boards;

- projecting bow window, leaded glass window sashes, window awnings, andwindow and door joinery from the Victorian, Edwardian and Interwar eras; and

- covered lych gate, early brick fence (intact underneath the recentmetal palisades) and Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria hetrophylla) and Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa). Also the mature Pepper tree, which is protected by an EnvironmentalSignificance Overlay.

The recent metal palisade fence, the brick garage, and the gabled rear extension are not significant.

How is it significant?

57 Vanberg Road, Essendon, is of local historical, aesthetic, and associative significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?

Tower House at 57 Vanberg Road, Essendon, is historically significant for its demonstration of the boom and bust of the 1880s land boom. This is demonstrated through its location on the large Essendon Park Estate and the villa's ownership and occupation by Walter and Mary Penglase. The 117 acres of the Essendon Park Estate form a large subdivision in Moonee Valley that benefited from the development of the Essendon railway. The estate attracted construction of villa residences and substantial homes before ultimately development stalled in the economic depression of the 1890s resulting in piecemeal development.

The construction of 57 Vanberg Road and its ownership by Mary Penglase, wife of Cornish mining speculator Walter Trestrail Penglase (1837-1904) is also part of the boom and bust narrative. The construction and subsequent additions to 57 Vanberg Road demonstrate the fortunes of mining speculation, with additions and alterations to the newly built house in 1888 prior to Walter's insolvency in 1889. While insolvency threatened, it appears that Mary Penglase was able to retain the house for a few short years prior to its repossession by the bank in 1893. The story of the tower once deemed to have been part of Tower House but not verified, adds to the narrative of the house as a symbol of turbulent economic times in both land and mining speculation. (Criterion A)

57 Vanberg Road is aesthetically significant for its demonstration of a substantial Victorian era Italianate villa retaining much of its garden setting. The combination of the house and the garden setting containing mature trees contribute to the aesthetic value of the place. 57 Vanberg Road demonstrates several eras of developments that encompass the Italianate, Queen Anne and Interwar styles overlaid on a single storey Italianate brick villa. It is an unusual, idiosyncratic house exhibiting multiple styles that is distinguished by the fine craftsmanship and the individual aesthetic merit of each layer. The expression of the Italianate is in the asymmetrical form and bichrome brickwork, the Queen Anne evident in the gable ends, with ornate timber bargeboards and timber finials and the Interwar period in the verandah columns, balustrade and bow-fronted window. Aesthetic value is derived from the Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria hetrophylla), several Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), and the Pepper tree (Schinus molle) which is protected in the ESO. (Criterion E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House