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Corio Villa

Location 56 Eastern Beach Road & 1 Fitzroy Street, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No B1062 File Number B1062 Level State

[1/2] B1062 Corio Villa [2/2] B1062 Corio Villa 56 Eastern

Statement of Significance

The prefabricated iron house, Corio Villa, situated on the corner of Victoria Parade and Fitzroy Street, Geelong, was manufactured in Edinburgh in 1855 by iron founder, Charles D Young and Co from designs by Bell and Miller, architects and engineers. William Nairn Gray, colonial land commissioner, ordered this villa but he died on 11 June, 1854 prior to the portable house shipment. Alfred Douglass, merchant, acquired and erected the villa in 1856.

In the early 1850's, Victorian era attitudes to iron buildings, and the relationship between architecture and engineering changed. Simple utilitarian iron buildings which in Early Victorian times were regarded as daring and innovative industrial structures were later overlaid and enriched with architectural ornamentation. Corio Villa is a unique example of this changing attitude and one which is of paramount international significance to the history of industrial technology and aesthetic movements in the 19th century. Corio Villa is maintained in excellent condition. The late 1880's timber additions are also sensitively maintained.

Classified State07/07/1960