Residence

The house at 50 Swanston Street, Geelong, has significance as part of an unusual set of four intact Late Victorian Italianate styled timber houses. Built in 1902 as part of a speculative development for Thomas Clarke, farmer, the house appears to be in good condition when viewed from the street.

The house at 50 Swanston Street is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of an intact Late Victorian Italianate style. These qualities include the hipped roof form that traverses the site, together with the conical bay window and hipped bullnosed verandah that project towards the street frontage. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the asymmetrical composition, single storey height, horizontal timber weatherboard wall cladding, galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, narrow eaves with worked timber brackets and panelling, three rendered brick chimneys with projecting corniced tops, projecting gabled verandah portico, turned verandah timber columns, timber framed double hung windows, moulded timber window architraves, timber window label moulds, and the front timber framed doorway with sidelights and highlights, and the turned finials surmounting the projecting bay and verandah portico. The significance of the dwelling also relies on the retention of the neighbouring three houses of identical design and construction.

The house at 50 Swanston Street is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with residential developments in Geelong in the late 19th century. In particular, this house has associations with Thomas Clarke, farmer of Drysdale, who instigated construction of this house in 1902 as part of speculative development of four houses in Swanston Street.


Overall, the house at 50 Swanston Street is of LOCAL significance.

REFERENCES:

Reports and Drainage Plans, Barwon Water profis system, 1917.
Voters' Roll, Bellerine Ward, 1992, Geelong Historical records Centre.
Sands & McDougall's Directory of Geelong, 1972, Geelong Historical Records Centre.
Sands & McDougall's "Invicta" Geelong Directory, 1968, Geelong Historical Records Centre.
Geelong City Council Rate Books (Bellerine Ward), 1901-1960, Geelong Historical Records Centre.
Town Plan of Geelong 1881, Geelong Historical Records Centre.
Investigator, Journal of the Geelong Historical Society, September 1988 and March, 1989, Geelong Historical Records Centre.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residence