Kenmure

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Kenmure

86 George Street

This Federation style house has local significance as the home of Frederick Heller, jeweller, and his wife, Sarah Jane, In 1905, Mrs Heller is shown as the owner (possibly because of the anti-German agitation of the time) and Frederick as the occupier. ([i]) The previous year the property was rated as vacant land. ([ii]) Heller may have had associations with the German Lutheran community in the Hamilton district as a descendant of Maria Heller, a German Lutheran prophetess, who was admitted to the Hamilton Lutheran congregation in 1876. She married Ernst Scholz, living at nearby Hochkirch until her death in 1906. Hochkirch, or German Town, became known as Tarrington in 1918, as a result of anti-German sentiment. ([iii])

The house is a particularly distinguished and elegant exercise in the Federation style. It shows an emphasis on the roofline and the diagonal, both set off by the spire and perpendicular axes of the gables. The materials used are also typical and, in the case of the pressed cement sheet roof tiles, innovative. It contrasts with Lyndhurst, 4 McIntyre Street and the house at 18 McIntyre Street which were built at the same time. The remnants of the original garden complement the house. It survives significantly intact and in excellent condition. It is critical to the streetscape.