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Ilyuka

Location 2 - 16 Point King Road,, PORTSEA VIC 3944 - Property No B6117 File Number B6117 Level State

[1/2] B6117 Iluyka [2/2] B6117Iluyka Kay & Burton

Statement of Significance

Built in 1929-30 for American oil executive Harry Cornforth, Harry Norris's Ilyuka is architecturally significant at a state level as Victoria's grandest example of the Spanish Colonial Revival idiom.
Disposed around a large courtyard in the manner of an Andalusion farmhouse or a Californian mission or ranch, the seaside mansion comprises extensive loggiae, sunrooms, a patio and terrace and numerous large living spaces.
The complex originally accommodated six live-in staff. The stuccoed walls are austerely detailed, with ornament and wrought iron generally confined to points of entry. A nearby bathing house, converted from an old lime kiln, emphasises the houses's relationship with the sea, and is itself of architectural and historical interest. Most of the original furniture was designed and built especially for Ilyuka by John Paget, though Norris designed chairs and tables for at least one of the sunrooms. The exterior of the house is largely intact.
Norris, an architect of note in Victoria during the interwar period, had recently returned from touring the United States and was clearly inspired in the design of Ilyuka by the Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival buildings of Southern California, Santa Barbara and greater Los Angeles in particular. His penchant for these idioms is similarly displayed in the design of the smaller but more richly ornamented Kellow House, St Kilda Road (1928). Iluyka is the high point of the use of Spanish idioms in architect designed homes in Victoria.
Classified: 15/04/1992