Auburn South Primary School No. 4183

Auburn South Primary School No. 4183 at 417-419 Tooronga Road, Hawthorn East is significant. Land for the new school was acquired in 1921, and the school was built in 1925 to a design by Victorian Public Works Department (PWD) Chief Architect E. Evan Smith (1870-1965). The Mediterranean Cypress tree to the south of the 1925 main school building is also significant. Recent school buildings within the school site and additions and alterations to the 1925 building are not significant. 

Auburn South Primary School No. 4183 is of local historical, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.

Built in 1925, Auburn South Primary School No. 4183 is historically significant as an expression of the development of the southern portion of Hawthorn East in the 1920s, the second broad phase of the suburb’s development. The northern part of Hawthorn East developed first, from the 1880s. Remaining vacant land in Hawthorn was taken up during an intensive boom of residential subdivision in the municipality between 1910 and 1940, particularly in the area south of Riversdale Road, including Hawthorn East. Upgrade works and electrification of the railway line (1918-22) made the area of Hawthorn East and its shopping centre more attractive and accessible. Consequently, new subdivisions opened up land for both residential and commercial development in the interwar years, and the new school at Auburn South was built to serve this growing population. (Criterion A)

 

Architecturally, Auburn South Primary School No. 4183 is a fine example of the interwar school buildings exemplified in the work of the Victorian Public Works department under Chief Architect E. Evan Smith during his role as Chief Architect (1922-29); the main school Building was designed in 1925. Smith’s leadership of the Department from 1922-29 corresponded with the construction of a number of fine schools that expressed contemporary ideas of civic beauty through the use of classical styles, an emphasis on axiality and, at times, Palladian plans. These include several examples of State significance including: University High School, Parkville; Bendigo Senior Secondary College; and Kyneton Secondary College. Auburn South Primary School is one of several interwar schools within Boroondara including Hartwell, Kew East, Camberwell South and Ashburton primary schools that were designed and built under the leadership of E Evan Smith. (Criterion D)

 

Auburn South Primary School is aesthetically significant for its use of restrained classical elements on the dignified 1925 Building. The 1925 building is distinguished through its use of face red brick with concrete sills and lintels around the regularly spaced multi-paned sash windows, terracotta tile hip roof, tall rendered chimneys with contrasting brick elements, and rough rendered upper storey walls. While some external changes have taken place to the school as a whole, the 1925 building is largely intact. Planted before 1945, the Mediterranean Cypress tree in the school grounds, on the south side of the 1925 school building, is historically consistent with the interwar period of the school’s establishment and contributes to the aesthetic qualities of the school building. (Criterion E)