MILK BAR
37 GLASS STREET, ESSENDON, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The corner shop at 37 Glass Street, Essendon, is significant. It was built for a Miss E McDonald in 1929 to a design by Melbourne architect Harry Norris.
The building is a two-storey shop and residence on a corner site. Walls are of clinker brick with panels of cast-cement relief and tiles, and the hip roof is clad in terracotta tiles. The facade composition is asymmetric, with one half of the tiled hip roof framed by raised piers and the other hidden by a parapet. A verandah, supported by steel tie-backs, sits above the broad shopfront. The shopfront was replaced c1950s, but is sympathetic in that it has retained the configuration of the original.
How is it significant?
The shop is of local architectural/aesthetic and historical significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
It is architectural historicallysignificant for its association with leading Melbourne interwar commercial architect Harry A Norris. His practice was founded in the early twenties and spread interstate through his clients' commercial activity. He was responsible for many notable buildings, including Mitchell House, the Nicholas Building, the Kellow Falkiner Showroom, and Majorca House in central Melbourne. The shop illustrates Norris' translation of a high-end architectural fashion to a suburban context. It is also of architectural and aesthetic significance as a shop in the Spanish Mission style, which was rarely used for commercial buildings in Moonee Valley. It is distinguished for its striking Spanish Baroque cast-cement reliefs and the Moorish tiles of its facade, as well as for its fine verandah, which has a level of detail rarely seen on suburban shops. (Criteria H, B & E)
It is historically significant for demonstrating a bygone aspect of pre-WWII life: Prior to widespread car ownership and home refrigeration, neighbourhood corner stores were an important amenity in residential areas, where day-to-day needs could be purchased. (Criterion A)
-
-
MILK BAR - Physical Description 1
The two-storey shop and residence at 37 Glass Street is located on the south-east corner of Glass and Napier streets. The shop is distinctive for its Interwar Spanish Mission style detailing. The ground level double shopfront addresses Glass Street with a wide cantilevered verandah, while at the first floor level; the distinctive parapet treatment addresses the corner with Napier Street.
The original shopfront has been replaced (c1950s), however, the composition is largely the same with central double doors between two large plate-glass windows and below highlight windows. The material and details are now typical of the 1950s, including chrome-plated framing to the windows, large white square tiles to the piers and stallboard, and ribbed-glass highlights. The verandah, supported by steel tie-backs to the facade, is a fine original feature with a pressed metal fascia divided into three bays with a pedimented middle section, moulded edges and nail-head bosses.
The first floor facade is divided into two asymmetrical bays by piers of clinker bricks capped with intricate cast-cement Spanish Baroque details at the tops of the piers and in friezes. The eastern bay once contained an open balcony which has since been infilled with glazing. The tiled hip roof is visible at this bay above a pressed cement decorative lintel frieze. The spandrel is finished with patterned Moorish tiles, which is continued below the pair of windows in the western bay, below the extravagant pressed cement decorative parapet coping. This bay configuration is continued around the corner to Napier Street. The Napier Street elevation has a rendered ground floor with side entry with a single double-hung window above at first floor level. There is a single-storey wing at the rear with a banded brick and render chimney.
All windows to the first floor are modern aluminium sliding units. The original plans, held by the Essendon Historical Society, show that the windows on the left-hand side of the Glass Street elevation are infill to a once open balcony, which had margin-glazed French doors behind it (matching the shop doors). The two windows on the right-hand side are shown with three-over-three vertical panes. Their unusual proportions suggests they were casement windows. A pair of the same windows are shown to the Napier Street elevation.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - Moonee Valley Heritage Study
Author: Context Pty Ltd, 2015
Year: 2015
Grading: LocalMoonee Valley - City of Moonee Valley Stage 1 Heritage Gap Study
Author: Context PL
Year: 2013
Grading:
-
-
-
-
-
FORMER NORTH PARKVictorian Heritage Register H1286
-
CANARY ISLAND DATE PALM AVENUE (PHOENIX CANARIENSIS)Victorian Heritage Register H1200
-
MOONEE PONDS CREEK 1Victorian Heritage Inventory
-
"1890"Yarra City
-
"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
-
"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
-
'YARROLA'Boroondara City
-
1 Bradford AvenueBoroondara City
-
-