SCOTTISH HOUSE

Scottish House was designed as an office block for the prominent shipping agents McIlwraith McEacharn Ltd in 1907 by architect Charles D'Ebro. The six storey building has a light well in the centre and the construction is a steel frame with masonry walls and composite reinforced concrete and timber floors. The floors are six inches (150mm) thick, possibly with coke-breeze aggregate and expanded steel as reinforcement. The front facade, in a restrained English Renaissance style is faced with sandstone and has a rusticated base with plain arched openings. The slightly projecting central bay is crowned with a pediment. The architraves are minimal. The interior was considerably altered in the 1950s, entailing major alterations to walls, toilets and lifts, and original finishes and details were lost. The columned main chamber and the stair forming a ring around the central light court form notable spaces.

How is it significant?

Scottish House is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

Scottish House is architecturally significant as an office building that expresses both in style and structure the commercial values and status of a leading Australian company. The building is significant for its fine stonework. The subdued elegance of the design ideally displays the cut sandstone of the main facade. The ground floor is equally elegant for its bluestone arcade with carved keystones and red granite columns. The use of reinforced concrete floors is an early example of this structural system in a city building. The building is unusual for the dual entries which lead separately to the main ground floor chamber or to the lift and staircase which serves the upper floors.

Scottish House is historically significant as the head office for more than seventy years of the mercantile agents and shipowners, McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. The construction of Scottish House confirmed their position as a leading Australian coastal shipping firm. During the latter decades of the nineteenth century the firm helped pioneer the export of frozen meat, making them one of the most innovative and important shipping company’s of the period.

Group

Commercial

Category

Commercial Office/Building