Myrtle Hill
14 Vista Avenue KEW, Boroondara City
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Statement of Significance
Myrtle Hill, at 14 Vista Avenue, Kew, is of local historical and architectural significance as a good example of a large and imposing single-storey Italianate house of the early 1870s surviving in Kew. While the house has undergone a degree of alteration, its overall form remains evident and extensive original fabric survives. Originally sited on a large allotment overlooking Normanby Road (now Argyle Street), the setting of the house has been dramatically altered through extensive subdivision and development.
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Myrtle Hill - Physical Description 1
Myrtle Hill, listed variously as 46 Normanby Road, 10 Myrtle Avenue, 12 Vista Avenue and now 14 Vista Avenue, has had a complex history of subdivision, and at least two of the surrounding houses - 46 Normanby Road of c.1940 and 5 Myrtle Avenue of 1946, have been occupied at various times by the owners or former owners. Of direct frontages only a driveway gate to Vista Avenue (with reproduction gates but possibly early posts, relocated) and a 50-metre frontage to Bowyer Avenue remain. Sited on a truncated allotment, the house itself remains in good albeit altered condition, with recent refurbishment works following a phase of semi-dereliction in the 1960s.
Designed by George Johnson and completed in 1873, Myrtle Hill is a sprawling single-storey brick Italianate house rendered with stucco ruled in an ashlar pattern. The 1904 Board of Works plan[i] shows the house as entered by a long curving drive from Normanby Road, with the entry side facing south. The original front door, sidelights, and the main north-south hall were to the immediate west of a projecting breakfront with a canted bay window. This breakfront separated a main return verandah on the west side and a longer plain wall without verandah to the east. The rest of the main verandah flowed round a second canted bay, facing west, then stepped back halfway across the north elevation, and continued on right round a north facing wing with a third canted bay. The 1904 plan shows the north-western part of this main verandah as being infilled with a timber annexe, now removed. There appear to have been additional verandahs on the east side around the kitchen court and apron areas, and there was a smaller verandah on the main east west wing, facing north. These verandahs have all been removed.
The roof is slate, partly refurbished, with galvanized iron ridge-capping. The verandah has a similar slate roof and cast iron lace frieze, but much of it has been completely rebuilt, particularly at the northern wing around the so-called ballroom. The house has emphatically corniced rendered chimneys and deep-bracketed eaves with even bracket spacing. The verandah soffits are tongue and groove planking. The verandah posts are grouped cast iron columns with Corinthian capitals, and the frieze is in a cast iron swag pattern with bracketing in curved floral patterns springing from each set of columns. The verandah floor is tiled reinforced concrete of more recent date with bluestone nosing, the verandah's original timber floor having rotted out. The decaying timber floor can be seen in a 1971 John Collins photograph.[ii] The front door is signaled by a curved timber and cast iron lace frieze forming a stilted segmental arch above six grouped columns. An additional set of balustraded steps faces west and leads from the verandah into the former west garden, now enclosed with rear paling fences from the subdivided properties along Bowyer Avenue, to the immediate west.
Large cellar areas open up under the house and are entered through steps on the north-west side. These have flooded frequently.
The original windows are an interesting group with narrow lipped sills in bluestone, paneled risers under those, and then sashes above. Three of these are on the canted bay facing west, and these were used as image sources when a set of windows on the north wing, east side, and the east wing, north side, were converted into French windows. The south side-the original entry- has a similarly interesting set of Italianate windows in the canted bay by the former front door: these have rounded corners and flourish-form voussoirs. As with the other canted bays, these windows are separated by a set of corner indentations matching the chamfers at the window reveals. These both underscore, literally, the turn of each canted bay, yet they also read as grouped pilasters between the windows. As was common in Australian Italianate, specific classical orders were avoided.
The north east wing was originally a kitchen wing. It housed male and female privies, entered from outside, and is illustrated in John Collins' 1971 photographs held in the State Library.[iii] This has been refurbished, with the privy doors mortared over, the brick wall cement rendered and the north side fitted with ball lanterns and French doors similar to those diagonally opposite on the east side of the north wing. These replaced a set of double-hung sashes and wooden shutters. The ballroom is a complete wing, probably built after the original house was complete but showing on the MMBW plan of 1904. The southernmost wing, running east-west, has been refitted as a kitchen wing twice over, with the actual kitchen area being relocated each time. This south wing has also been extended by c.1.3m. It now houses both the kitchen and a family room.[iv]
A swimming pool was added in 1977,[v] and a new building - identified initially as a two-storied detached garage and study - was added on the north side of the site in 2002-3,[vi] facing Myrtle Avenue at the Locksley Avenue corner. The rest of the garden - facing north - was then screened by a new high timber fence running the remaining of the property as it now faces Myrtle Avenue. The Vista Avenue gateway is flanked by two houses built after earlier subdivisions. 12 Vista Avenue is a replacement of an earlier brick house that appears in the photographs of 1989; 16 Vista Avenue is of relatively recent construction, and is sited between the gateway and the path linking Vista and Myrtle Avenues.
A number of trees on the site are relatively mature, with the balance of plantings of recent origins. Though surrounded by subdivision the remaining garden is still substantial in area, and has been opened up to connect with that of 5 Myrtle Avenue. Two large trees were removed to accommodate the garage and study building on the garden's north side.
[i] MMBW Plan No. 66, 160'/1" scale, dated June 1903/1904.
[ii] John Collins, 'Myrtle Hill? HS i.e. homestead ', State Library of Victoria, jc010328, taken c. 4 September 1971: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/jcollins/0/1/0/doc/jc010328.shtml, accessed 5 December 2005.
[iii] John Collins, 'Myrtle Hill? HS', State Library of Victoria, jc007499, taken 4 September 1971: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/jcollins/0/0/7/doc/jc007499.shtml, accessed 5 December 2005, accession no. H97.250/1614.
[iv] Details sourced from City of Kew Building Index, #8110, dated 20 August 1979.
[v] Details sourced from City of Kew Building Index, #6882, dated 12 September 1977.
[vi] Details sourced from City of Boroondara Building index, #95/041, dated 4 December 1995 after an Administrative Appeals Tribunal appeal and direction; Building Permit #1147/020516/1, dated 24 September 2002.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Review of B Graded Buildings in Kew, Camberwell and Hawthorn
Author: Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants
Year: 2006
Grading: BBoroondara - City of Kew Urban Conservation Study
Author: Pru Sanderson Design Pty Ltd
Year: 1988
Grading:
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