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WEST ESSENDON PROGRESS HALL (FORMER)

Other Name

West Essendon Community Hall

Location

9-11 BRADSHAW STREET, ESSENDON, MOONEE VALLEY CITY

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

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9-11 Bradshaw Street, Essendon

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The West Essendon Progress Hall, originally erected as a dining hall for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games village and relocated to this site in 1957, is significant. The former West Essendon Progress Hall is a gabled building with a longer slope on the west side. The walls are clad in what appears to the original Masonite on the north and west sides, and boards on the east side. There are what appear to be the original timber paired double hung sash windows (some with horizontal glazing bars) and small square louvred windows in the east wall.The entrance has a flat roof porch. The rivetted beam ends of the internal frame are visible in the end walls.

How is it significant?
The West Essendon Progress Hall is of local historic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?
It is historically significant as a building associated with the suburban development of West Essendon as the first community hall built in the suburb as it grew after World War Two. It provides tangible evidence of the involvement of the West Essendon Progress Association in the development of community amenities. It is also significant as a representative example of the simple, functional buildings that characterize the austerity of the 1950s. (Criteria A, D & H)

It is also significant as the only known surviving example of the dining halls erected at the Olympic Village site in Heidelberg West in 1956, with the express purpose of being removed and relocated after the games had finished. The only example that has been located, this building also remains as one of the few surviving non-residential buildings associated with the Olympic Village and therefore has potential to yield further information about the development of the Village. (Criteria A, B & C)

Group