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Long Croft
Location878 High Street ARMADALE, STONNINGTON CITY LevelIncluded in Heritage Overlay |
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Statement of Significance
What is significant? The house and stables were built for Herbert Lillies, a physician and surgeon who emigrated from Britain in 1884 with his wife Charlotte Maria. Lillies became a prominent medical practitioner while practicing in Melbourne, and the house served as both a medical practice and family residence. His prominent patients include both the Governor of Victoria and the former Premier of Victoria. The house remained in the Lillies family until the 1970s. 'Long Croft' features particular standout details such as the fine pargeted tympanum to the front gabled bay, the distinctive polychrome brickwork patterning and use of moulded brickwork, and the intricate and non-standard cast-iron verandah detail. The house and stables are highly intact externally. The masonry front fence is not significant. How is it significant? Why is it significant? It is of aesthetic significance for its unusual and high quality detail. This includes the polychrome brickwork with unusual diaper patterning below the eaves line and a bold use of moulded bricks to define the triangular parapet and arched window heads; the fine example of free-hand decorative pargeting to the pediment tympanum; the fine window treatments including the delicate leadlight fanlights above the 12-over-1 sash windows, and the range of intricate and non-standard cast-iron work with flat and stylised geometric patterns. Its high level of integrity and high quality detail is notable in Armadale where there are few examples of this type. (Criterion E) The stables/coachhouse building to the rear of the property is a very rare and intact example of a nineteenth century stables complex in Stonnington. (Criterion B)
'Long Croft' at 878 High Street, Armadale, built in 1888 to a design by architectural practice Procktor and Ruck, and comprising a two storey residential design of distinctive detailing illustrating the transition from Victorian Italianate to the Queen Anne domestic style, along with an intact stables complex to the rear, is significant.
878 High Street, Armadale is of local architectural and aesthetic significance and rarity value to the City of Stonnington.
'Long Croft' at 878 High Street, Armadale is an excellent representative example of a late nineteenth century house built for a prominent Melbourne resident, of the sort that began to characterise the suburb of Armadale in the 1880s. The house provides an important example of the residential work of architects Procktor and Ruck, illustrating the development of the Queen Anne style in Melbourne. (Criterion D)
Group
Residential buildings (private)
Category
Villa