Oakover Hall

The house, originally constructed in 1857, is the oldest surviving residence in Preston. It is among the largest surviving nineteenth century residences in Preston, along with Pleasant View (formerly Lyonsville), 131 Wood Street, Preston). The original owner of the house, Thomas Goodwin, was a major landowner in the district in the 1850s. It subsequent owner, Abraham Booth, was a prominent pastoralist and his purchase of the house in 1863 reflects the common practice among Victorian pastoralists in the nineteenth century of acquiring large suburban residences in addition to their country properties.

Oakover Hall appears almost certainly to have been designed by John Gill, one of the more prominent architects in the 1840s and 1850s in Melbourne. Although Gill designed a large number of residences from the mid 1840s, as well as churches and other buildings, Oakover Hall is one of relatively few surviving houses that can be reasonably definitely attributed to him; including Turinville, 53 Bernard Grove, Kew (cI847), possibly Invergowrie, Coppin Grove, Hawthorn (1849-50), Royal Terrace, Nicholson Street, Fitzroy (1854-6) and Grace Park House, Chrystobel Crescent, Hawthorn (1857). Although the extent to which the existing house reflects the original gill design or the 1875 reconstruction by Crouch and Wilson is unclear, the simplified Italianate character of the house is representative of larger residences in Melbourne suburbs from the 1850s to the 1870s.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House