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67-73 Alto Avenue
67-73 Alto Avenue CROYDON, MAROONDAH CITY

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Maroondah City
Alto Ave 69-73
Alto Ave 69-73
Alto Ave 69-73
Alto Av 69-73
Alto Ave 69-73
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Statement of Significance

Built as Koongarra in c1925 as a family home, Kewn Kreestha became a rest home for mothers, owned and operated by the Grey Sisters (now Family Care Sisters) Roman Catholic order of nuns, from 1940. The site was enlarged and additions built, particularly in 1983 designed by McCarthy, Collings and Purnell architects. It is historically significant to the Melbourne region in demonstrating the practical social effect of the work of the Order, derived from its religious belief. It is socially significant to all of the mothers who have benefited from the care at this place over time and who identify with it. Finally, it has architectural significance as a representative Bungalow type of house, in the setting of its surviving garden, mature trees and distant views. It has been substantially altered, but is in very good condition.

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    • Intactness

      67-73 Alto Avenue - Intactness

      The original house is relatively intact externally, but there have been major additions and all interiors gutted, except the sitting room.

      Form, roof form, gable decor, windows, garden structures: lamp, rockwalls, paths & steps; views, gardens, trees.

      Physical Description 1

      67-73 Alto Avenue - Physical Description 1

      An elevated timber double-storied, gable-roofed pavilion across, its roof with unglazed Marseilles terra-cotta tiles. The central three bays are set forward as a balcony, with a triangular louvred vent, the gable supported on timber brackets. Beneath is a timber verandah with a skillion roof, timber palisade balustrade and plain timber post-pairs. There is a plain red brick chimney to the fireplace in the sitting room, the only original surviving interior, perhaps retained for its homely feeling. Window sashes have four panes, top hung. There are extensive views to the Dandenong Ranges. There is a major conservative Modernist gabled addition at right which is most sympathetic (1983), and various outbuildings, including the priests' cottage (1941). The mature garden is extensive, with a stand of pines at the street corner, a path winding up to the entrance, with a pre-cast concrete Egyptian lamp standard (no longer functional), brick edging to concrete steps and rubble edging to gravel garden paths; also lawns, shrubs, grass clumps, garden beds and mature trees.

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Maroondah - Maroondah Heritage Identification Study

      Author: Richard Peterson with Peter Barrett
      Year: 1998
      Grading:

Public contributions

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