Coonara

'Coonara' at 1C Ardoch Street, Essendon, is significant. The house was built in 1917-18 for James and Edith Oliver.

Significant fabric includes the:

original building form and roof form;

corner tower, verandah, and fenestration;

chimneys and slate roof;

detailing to the corner tower including its protruding rough-hewn beams (some replaced with cast-concrete), roughcast; rendered walls and inverted crescent motif on the corner pillar;

gable end detailing and oriel window;

verandah, door and window joinery and leaded glass window sashes; and,

remnants of the original garden.

The carport and fences are not significant.

How is it significant?

1C Ardoch Street, Essendon, is of rarity value and aesthetic significance and associative significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?

'Coonara' at 1C Ardoch Street, Essendon, is rare for its very early incorporation of the Spanish Mission style into domestic architecture in Moonee Valley and Victoria more widely. It predates the earliest houses in the state that are full expressions of the style, appearing in the mid-1920s, and other examples in Moonee Valley which are of the 1930s. (Criterion B)

'Coonara' is a substantial and largely intact early interwar house whose massing and details are largely a fine example of the Arts & Crafts attic-storey bungalow type. Common details such as half-timbering and timber brackets are executed boldly and idiosyncratically. It is further set apart from other examples by its entrance porch tower, which emulates a vernacular adobe structure from the American Southwest and can be considered part of the Pueblo Revival subset of the Spanish Mission style. The juxtaposition of an attic bungalow with this porch structure, as well as a wide oriel window resting on oversized curved timber brackets, are also seen in architect Rutledge Louat's 1910 design for the Morley Johnson House in Warrawee, Sydney. In its design 'Coonara' is closely related to this stately home, whether through the same architect or as a model for a very confident local designer. (Criterion E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House