HOUSE (GIRRAWHEEN)

The property Girrahween at 125-133 McIvor Road comprising a house built c.1925 and its garden setting are significant.

How is it significant?

125-13 McIvor Road is of historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Greater Bendigo.

Why is it significant?

The house located on a rise at 125-133 McIvor Road is historically significant in its associations with the Beischer family, many of whom were prominent community members in Bendigo during the late nineteenth and early-twentieth Centuries. The building was constructed as the private residence of Albert Ludwig Beischer, a dentist who practiced out of offices in the City's commercial centre at Pall Mall. Albert was well known in his profession and contributed to the progression of dentistry as a medical science. The adjacent land parcel at 2-4 Doak Street contains the private residence of Albert's brother William Beischer, likewise a dentist, who built the home shortly after his marriage in 1928. Their father Wilhelm Beischer and his wife Henrietta also had a home at McIvor Road, known as 'Bignold Park', and ran a bakery at 4 Weeroona Avenue for several years before passing the family business on to their son Frederick. The homes of sisters Medora and Laura Katerina were situated in nearby Bobs Street, making the area very closely associated with the Beischer family.

The house built in 1925, most probably to a design by architect George Austen, and the garden laid out to complement the house, is an excellent example of the high quality Inter-war development in Bendigo. This period in Bendigo's history is demonstrated through some fine housing undertaken for prominent professional and business people. Residential development along McIvor Road was part of the expansion of Bendigo away from the Victorian and Edwardian era streets associated with mining and other industries. The property is a landmark near the top of the hill leading out of Bendigo and the house is complemented by the large garden setting of a comparable era to the house.

The house is an unusually large and intact Inter-war dwelling with Classical Revival features including porches supported by triple square pillars and multi-paned sash windows. The manner in which the house has been designed to sit on the large site through the introduction of two front elevations is notable. Particular features of the design include the use of face brick and render and the concrete tile hipped roof with restrained detail to the rendered chimneys. The pair of faceted bay windows and the recessed porch to the west elevation are notable, as is the original finely detailed door and window joinery. The glazing to the porch could be removed to reinstate the original west elevation should this be considered to be desirable. The quality of the design is similar to other residences known to have been designed by Architect George Austen, and he was known to have designed other houses for close family members.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House