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VIRGINIA

Location

Hamilton Highway and Day's Lane TABOR, Southern Grampians Shire

File Number

689

Level

Stage 2 study complete

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Virginia is a bluestone homestead with later timber additions, located on the corner of Day's Lane and the Hamilton Highway, about 6.5km north west of the township of Penshurst. Virginia was purchased by Andreas Burger for his daughter Marie Sophie Burger. Some years after her marriage to August Presser, the Presser family returned to the Penshurst district, where they took up the land which Andreas Burger had purchased for Marie. In 1900, they built the present homestead. There have been a number of alterations to the house over the past 100 years. The property remains in the Presser family. There has been no architect or builder associated with the design. The integrity of the building has been compromised by unsympathetic alterations, but essentially, Virginia is in good condition.

How is it significant?
Virginia is of historic significance to the township of Penshurst and to the Southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
Virginia is of historic significance as an expression of the success over several generations of German Lutheran migrants, specifically the Burger, Mirtschin and Linke families, in the Gnardenthal area. The house is a representative example of a small bluestone homestead constructed from locally quarried material. It is of further significance for its associations with the Burger and Presser family, who have retained the property in the family for over 100 years continuously. The house is a respresentation of the links between the Lutheran communities at Gnadenthal and Allansford.

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