St Joseph's Catholic School (formerly St John's Catholic School for Boys)

St Joseph's Catholic School (built as St John's Catholic School for Boys) at 571 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, is significant. The school was constructed in 1911 for the Jesuit Fathers of Hawthorn to a design by architect Augustus Andrew Fritsch, with a matching extension to the south end in 1929 designed by architect G.W. Vanheems.

In 1978 the staff and students of St Joseph's Catholic School moved from their original site at the corner of Power Street and Denham Road, where they have been located since 1854, to this site.

The school building is single storey, constructed of red face brick, and has a transverse gabled roof with parapets at either end. The roof is clad in slate, has a metal ventilator along its ridge, and exposed rafter tails to the eaves.

Post-1929 alterations and extensions are not significant, including the metal-clad entrance hood on the south elevation, the two-storey rear wing at the north end, and the metal-clad building that stands just behind the brick building.

How is it significant?

St Joseph's (former St John's) Catholic School is of local historical, aesthetic and social significance to the City of Boroondara.

Why is it significant?

St Joseph's Catholic School is of historical significance as both the first parish school established in Hawthorn and Boroondara and the one in the longest continuous operation, though it only moved to this site in 1978. More generally it illustrates the importance of parish schools in Boroondara's suburbs, which were strongly favoured by Catholic families in the ninetieth and early twentieth centuries over State schools. (Criterion A)

St Joseph's Catholic School is significant for its associations with the establishment and growth of the Hawthorn Catholic community since the 1850s, beginning at the Power Street site. The building at 571 Glenferrie Road is significant for its association with the early twentieth century development of the Catholic community that resulted in the foundation of new schools such as St John's. (Criterion G)

The 1911 building is associated with its designer, Augustus Andrew Fritsch, a Hawthorn local and the pre-eminent architect of the Catholic Church in the first decades of the twentieth century. He designed many notable churches, presbyteries, schools and convents throughout Victoria. This building incorporates a number of his favoured architectural motifs, seen at other churches and a convent, incorporated into a fine Free Style design. Of particular note are the details to the central gable, including the shaped gable apexes, bull's-eye window with render dressings and oversized keystone, and two pilasters flanking the front gable which extend above the parapet as piers and are topped with a cyma recta moulding in an ox-bow shape, and ornamented with an Art Nouveau floral bas-relief. (Criteria E & H)

Group

Education

Category

Other - Education