Bonaventura

'Bonaventura', a red brick Queen Anne villa with Italianate features at 33 Brewster Street, Essendon, is significant. The house was built in 1911 for factory owner Charles James Fendley.

Significant elements include the:

Original built form, slate roof and roof form, verandah, fenestration, terracotta ridge cresting, finials, and cappings, chimneys, gable and eaves detailing;

unpainted face brick and masonry, verandah decoration, tiled verandah floor and basalt plinth, window hoods, and window and door joinery.

The modern rear extension is not significant.

How is it significant?

33 Brewster Street, Essendon, is of local architectural (representative) significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?

'Bonaventura' at 33 Brewster Street, Essendon, is a substantial and highly intact example of the Italianate-Queen Anne hybrid that was so popular in the residential architectural of the Edwardian period. It exhibits Italianate characteristics in its M-hipped roof form with long transverse ridges, the slate cladding, corniced chimneys, bracketed eaves, and bullnose verandah with cast iron columns and ornament. This is combined with characteristics of the Queen Anne style, including red face brick with render banding, a half-timbered gable-fronted bay, casement windows beneath a hood, timber brackets beneath the gable eaves, and terracotta ridge cresting and finials. The house is notable for its high quality materials and details, and its siting on a large corner block behind a generous garden enhances appreciation of its built form. (Criterion D)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House