Margaret Street Precinct
35-81 & 40-84 Margaret Street and 48-54 Taylor Street and 2-18 & 7-17 Park Street MOONEE PONDS, MOONEE VALLEY CITY

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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Margaret Street and Park Street precinct is a residential area that predominantly comprises houses built from c.1875 to c.1920.The following features contribute to the significance of the precinct:
- the houses at 35-45, 51-59, 65-81 & 40-68 & 72 Margaret Street, the interwar shop at 63 Margaret Street, 2-18 & 7-17 Park Street and 48-54 Taylor Street, and the front fences at 51 Margaret Street and 8 Park Street.
- The houses at nos. 35, 40, 68, 76 & 78 Margaret Street, 9 Park Street and 52 Taylor Street and the terrace at 42-64 Margaret Street are Significant*.
- the overall consistency of housing form (hipped or hip and gable roofs, single storey), materials and detailing (weatherboard, imitation Ashlar or face brick, corrugated metal slate or tile roofs, verandahs with cast iron or timber frieze decoration, render or brick chimneys), detached siting (small front setbacks and narrow side setbacks) and low front fences.
- streetscape materials such as bluestone kerb and channel and bluestone laneways.
Non-original alterations and additions to the Contributory houses and the houses at 49, 70, 74 & 80-84 Margaret Street are Non-contributory.
*In Margaret Street the terrace row at nos. 42-64 has a separate citation and statement of significance.
How is it significant?
The Margaret Street and Park Street precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley
Why is it significant?
Historically, it demonstrates the housing boom in Moonee Ponds during the late Federation/Edwardian and early interwar period, while the remnant Victorian houses are associated with the first phase of suburban development in the late nineteenth century. Although altered, 51 Margaret Street is of note as one of the earliest houses in the area, dating from 1874. The predominant Federation/Edwardian housing stock interspersed with Victorian era dwellings and a single corner shop is representative of the residential areas that developed during that period. (Criteria A & D)
Aesthetically, it is an enclave of predominantly Federation/Edwardian housing with characteristic, form, materials and detailing and good visual cohesion due to the consistency of built form. The setting of the houses is complemented by traditional public realm materials such as bluestone kerb and channel and bluestone laneways. (Criterion E)
Of note within the precinct are the following houses:
- 35 Margaret Street, which has the symmetrical, twin-bay form of 9 Park Street (further emphasized by the two brick and render chimneys) but coupled with a pyramidal hipped slate roof that extends to form a timber verandah with a projecting gable portico set between the bays, and a simple rendered frieze under the eaves that have visible rafters. (Criterion D)
- 40 Margaret Street, a double-fronted Victorian Italianate dwelling, is historically significant as a house constructed during the land boom in Moonee Ponds as the residence of an owner/developer who also built a speculative terrace row on the adjacent property. While many of these houses were constructed in the area surrounding Moonee Ponds station in the late 1880s, many have now been demolished and the significance of this place is enhanced by the historic and visual connection with the adjoining terrace row. (Criterion A & D)
- 68 Margaret Street, a Victorian Italianate terrace house which is notable for the highly unusual and finely detailed arcaded loggia with a balustraded parapet. The loggia is comprised of four arched openings (three of the same size and one smaller) supported by fluted Classical style columns and brick columns with chamfered corners. There are impost moulds decorated with Acanthus leaves to the columns and the facade behind. The parapet has a frieze decorated with swags, rosettes and two types of eaves brackets, while the balustrade features urns decorated with balls and an unusual pediment, placed off centre, that comprises an arched opening containing a ball finial. The entry door to the left is recessed and there is an opening at the opposite end leading to the side yard. (Criteria D & E)
- 'Beckenham', at 76 Margaret Street, a single-storey Victorian era timber Italianate villa built in 1884, is of historical significance as an example of residential development in the Essendon before the large-scale subdivisions of the later 1880s. It is also significant as a substantially intact Victorian-era villa and an example of the Italianate style, within its original allotment. The house retains original or early building materials of slate roofing and ashlar block-fronted weatherboard. Viewed from Margaret Street, the main change to the house is a sympathetically designed one-room front extension constructed sometime after 1905 and incorporating the side verandah.
It has a generous setting and the corner allotment allows views of two principal elevations. In this respect it compares well to 55 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds (HO322). It also demonstrates the Italianate style through its form, materials and detail including the retention of two sides of the original three-sided return verandah which is embellished with a cast iron frieze. 76 Margaret Street also demonstrates the Italianate style through its slate hipped roof enhanced by unpainted cement render chimneys, corbelled brackets to the eaves, cast iron verandah frieze, timber block front and weatherboard wall cladding, and a pair of canted bay windows. 76 Margaret Street is a more sophisticated example than 42 Myross Avenue, Ascot Vale (HO225), which has also undergone alterations to the side verandah. The sympathetic form, detail and materials employed to the extension at 76 Margaret Street are considered to not substantially diminish the ability of the house to demonstrate the Italianate style. (Criteria A & D)
- 78 Margaret Street, a Victorian house altered during the Federation/Edwardian period which is of note for the fine detailing, which includes is the 'sunray' pattern detailing to the verandah brackets that is also repeated in the bargeboards and at the side of the window hood (which also features scalloped infill boards), the arched windows that feature a 'bullseye' pattern to the upper sash and leadlight glass, and the original tessellated tile garden path, which matches that to the verandah. (Criterion E)
- 9 Park Street, which is an intact example of a transitional Italianate symmetrical villa constructed of red brick with projecting bays containing arched windows. The bullnose verandah has an ornate frieze, dentilled fascia, fluted columns with Corinthian capitals a gabled front over the entry and a tiled floor, and what appears to be the original tiled path with bluestone steps. The slate roof has terracotta ridge cresting with tall, ball finials. (Criterion D)
- 52 Taylor Street, which is a less common Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne villa with twin projecting gables on either side of a porch with an arched valance with wavy sticks and a tiled floor. The gables are bracketed and feature tall windows in a projecting bay with half timbering above and ornate rendered sills. The main roof has a street facing gable, placed off-centre, which has an arched vent flanked by triangles. Other details include the entry door with sidelights and highlights, an arched leadlight window with a label mould and bay window with rendered top in the side elevation, the tall brick chimneys with a flat bracketed cornice. (Criteria D & E)
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Margaret Street Precinct - Physical Description 1
The Margaret and Park Street precinct is a residential area that comprises housing from the late Victorian and Federation/Edwardian periods and one interwar shop. Most of the housing is detached, constructed of brick, with a smaller number in timber.
The Victorian houses include the exceptionally long terrace row at 42-64 Margaret Street (please refer to the individual citation for further details), and several detached houses at 40, 68 (much altered), 70 & 76 Margaret Street and 2, 12, 16 & 18 Park Street, all in the Italianate style. Typical of the style, they are either symmetrical or asymmetrical in plan and most are constructed of brick (with face brick or rendered walls) and have hipped roofs clad in slate or corrugated metal, bracketed eaves, paneled front doors with sidelights and highlights, timber tripartite or double sash windows with bluestone cills, cast iron verandahs with tiled floors, and brick or render chimneys with cornices. 40 Margaret Street is a double-fronted Victorian Italianate dwelling. It has a symmetrical appearance with a central entrance door with highlights and sidelights flanked by tripartite windows. The symmetry of the facade is enhanced by a pair of rendered brick chimneys, and there are further rendered or face brick chimneys at the rear. Other windows in side elevations are double hung sash. The form and materials of the front verandah (with the exception of the floor) are sympathetic, but it appears to be a reconstruction.
The timber examples at 72 & 76 Margaret Street have similar form and detailing with imitation Ashlar boards to the facade.
76 Margaret Street is a single-storey timber villa with slate roof. Stylistically, the house has characteristics of typical late Victorian, Italianate-style suburban residences. The hipped roof is clad in slate with metal ridge capping and paired eaves brackets. The three chimneys are cement-rendered with cornices. The convex verandah roof is corrugated iron supported by stop-chamfered verandah posts and decorated with cast iron frieze and brackets; the verandah frieze near the northern projecting room is now missing. The residence has timber ashlar blocks on the street elevations, while the minor elevations are clad in weatherboard. On the west elevation, a pair of windows with moulded timber architrave is provided on the projecting room, and there is a pair of bay windows with timber-framed double-hung sash under the verandah. The main entrance with highlight is on the south elevation although the door appears to be a replacement. The house has a generous set back from the streets, with its allotment boundary marked with the low timber-framed cyclone wire fence and metal gate to the west and with higher timber fence to the south. The grassed garden has been planted with fruit trees and is now overgrown. At the rear of the allotment are two modern outbuildings of timber and corrugated iron.
The exception is the terrace house at 68 Margaret Street, which has a highly unusual and finely detailed arcaded loggia with a balustraded parapet. The loggia is comprised of four arched openings (three of the same size and one smaller) supported by fluted Classical style columns and brick columns with chamfered corners. There are impost moulds decorated with Acanthus leaves to the columns and the facade behind. The parapet has a frieze decorated with swags, rosettes and two types of eaves brackets, while the balustrade features urns decorated with balls and an unusual pediment, placed off centre, that comprises an arched opening containing a ball finial. The entry door to the left is recessed and there is an opening at the opposite end leading to the side yard.
The origins of the two other Victorian houses in Margaret Street at nos. 51 and 78 are no longer evident due to the extensive remodelling during the early twentieth century. At no.51, modifications have transformed it into a bungalow, asymmetrical in plan with roughcast rendered walls, a hip roof with gablet and a projecting shingled gable to the front. The flat roofed verandah extends across the front of the projecting bay and is supported by paired posts on rendered piers with smooth render caps with brick detailing. Between the verandah piers are bowed rendered balustrades with in-built planters. A feature of the verandah is the prominent rafters with pronounced lobes that impart a Japanese influence. There are double entry doors (not visible but shown on the original plans as being glazed in a geometric pattern). The window to the projecting bay is a triple double-hung sash and there is a semi-circular bay window set into the corner with a shingled canopy. The rendered chimneys have flat caps. Complementing the house is the original front fence, which has roughcast rendered piers with smooth render caps and bases and a brick cross, connected by low rendered balustrades and metal poles. The entrance is marked by tall piers with a brick cross and an original mild-steel gate. The fence extends across the whole of the Margaret Street frontage and returns a short distance into Taylor Street with a curved section at the corner. There is a skillion roof addition along the north elevation of the house and a gabled post-war garage facing Taylor Street.
The house at 78 Margaret Street now has a transverse gable tiled roof that extends to form the verandah, which is supported on turned timber posts and has a timber valance with wavy sticks to one side of the projecting half-timbered and bracketed gable. Of note is the 'sunray' pattern detailing to the verandah brackets that is also repeated in the bargeboards and at the side of the window hood (which also features scalloped infill boards), the arched windows that feature a 'bullseye' pattern to the upper sash and leadlight glass, and the original tessellated tile garden path, which matches that to the verandah.
In Park Street, the Italianate houses at nos. 2, 12 & 16 are constructed of bi-chrome brick (no.2 has finely detailed bi-chrome brick chimneys). No. 16, while detached, has a terrace form with the verandah (appears to retain original cast iron frieze and twisted posts with Corinthian capitals) enclosed by wing walls embellished with vermiculated consoles and scroll brackets. Also in Park Street are two late examples of the style, constructed in the Federation period. No.7 is a symmetrical timber villa with imitation Ashlar boards to the facade and paired windows. The adjoining no.9 is an impressive symmetrical villa constructed of red brick with projecting bays containing arched windows. The bullnose verandah has an ornate frieze, dentilled fascia, fluted columns with Corinthian capitals a gabled front over the entry and a tiled floor, and what appears to be the original tiled path with bluestone steps. The slate roof has terracotta ridge cresting with tall, ball finials. Both are highly intact. Another unusual transitional example is 35 Margaret Street, which has the symmetrical, twin-bay form of 9 Park Street (further emphasized by the two brick and render chimneys) but coupled with a pyramidal hipped slate roof that extends to form a timber verandah with a projecting gable portico set between the bays, and a simple rendered frieze under the eaves that have visible rafters.
The other Federation/Edwardian houses include single fronted detached or semi-detached houses, and well as asymmetrical houses with Queen Anne details such as hipped roofs (often clad in terracotta tiles or slate with terracotta ridge cresting and finials) with prominent half-timbered street facing gables, tall brick and render chimneys with terracotta pots, timber casement windows in pairs or triples with highlights (often in leadlight or coloured glass and sometimes with bracketed window hoods)and timber verandahs with timber arched or ladder valances or metal frieze. Most are constructed of red brick (often with roughcast or smooth rendered bands at lower or mid-wall height or at the eaves) with a smaller number in timber. The single fronted detached and semi-detached houses are almost all located along the west side of Margaret Street and several are identical or similar, suggesting they were constructed by the same builder. These include:
- nos. 37-39 & 41-43, which feature projecting gabled square bay windows comprising leadlight glass casements and highlights with bracketed hoods. The gable ends are decorated with roughcast with small smooth panels and a jettied half-timber section at the apex infilled with fish-scale pressed metal. There is also a roughcast frieze and there is a hipped verandah with timber valance, posts and brackets over the side entry.
- nos. 59-61 and 69-81. These are all distinguished by the bracketed window hoods that extend the full width of the projecting bay and the square bay casement windows with highlights (originally containing leadlight glass), which have a flared skirt of notched boards. Nos. 69-81 are detached and have half-timbered gable ends, while the attached pair at nos. 59-61 have notched weatherboards with finely detailed louvered vents to the gable ends and vermiculated details and ball finials to the shared party wall.Other Federation/Edwardian houses with Queen Anne details in Margaret Street include nos. 55, 57, 65, 66 & 67. No. 55 features a fine curvilinear Art Nouveau style verandah frieze. The other houses in Margaret Street are the attached gable-fronted pair at nos. 45-47. Constructed in 1920, these retain some Federation/Edwardian details such as the boxed bay casement windows, vermiculated panels to the gable ends, and the timber valance above the recessed entry, but the lower pitched roofs show the transition to the bungalows of the 1920s. Also of note is what appears to be the shared gable-fronted roof, given that most if not all buildings were fully fire-separated by this time (and there is a brick party wall at the front).
The houses in Taylor Street are all Federation/Edwardian in style. Of note is no.52, at the west corner of Margaret Street, which is a less common type with twin projecting gables on either side of a porch with an arched valance with wavy sticks and a tiled floor. The gables are bracketed and feature tall windows in a projecting bay with half timbering above and ornate rendered sills. The main roof has a street facing gable, placed off-centre, which has an arched vent flanked by triangles. Other details include the entry door with sidelights and highlights, an arched leadlight window with a label mould and bay window with rendered top in the side elevation, the tall brick chimneys with a flat bracketed cornice.
In Park Street, no.15 is a finely detailed Queen Anne villa on a prominent corner site. Notable details include the bracketed and slightly projecting half timbered gables that have decorative bargeboards with pronounced lobes inset with disks, and the corner bay window and porthole window under the elegant return verandah that features an arched valance separated by paired tapered timber posts. Other brick Federation/Edwardian houses in Park Street include nos. 8 (very intact, features a timber gable screen, original timber verandah with original frieze and posts, and matching brackets to the hood to the bay window, and is complemented by a low rendered front fence with curved entry), 11 (features a bracketed 'flying' half-timbered gable and ornate window hood with spindled frieze), and 14. Park Street also contains several timber Federation/Edwardian houses at nos. 4, 6, 13 & 15. Nos. 4 & 6 may be by the same builder, as they have a similar asymmetrical form with steeply pitched hip roof with gablet that extends to form the verandah, and share some common details such as the use of notched weatherboards and corbelled brick chimneys. They are distinguished by the gable end treatment- jettied with roughcast style pressed metal and half-timbered to no.4, while no.6 features notched weatherboards and small half-timbered section at the apex and has finely detailed window architraves with shaped boards beneath the sill. On the opposite side the houses at nos. 13 and 15 have the same pressed metal to the gable end, also suggesting a shared builder.
While there have been some alterations (e.g. replacement of windows and alterations to porches/verandahs) the majority of houses in the precinct are relatively intact when viewed from the street. There are some visible additions, but the majority are not overly intrusive. The Non-contributory places include the much-altered Victorian house at 70 Margaret Street and the post-war houses at 49, 74, 80B, 82 & 84 Margaret Street.
Front fences throughout the precinct are uniformly low and many are in reproduction styles that are sympathetic to the era of housing. As noted above, there are two early fence at 51 Margaret Street and 8 Park Street.
The only non-residential building in the precinct is the interwar former shop at 63 Margaret Street. Typical of the period, this has a simple brick parapet with expressed piers and a cantilevered awning. The shopfront has been replaced.
Other features that contribute to the historic character of the precinct are the bluestone kerb and channel, and the bluestone laneway between 11 and 13 Park Street.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - City of Moonee Valley Stage 1 Heritage Gap Study
Author: Context PL
Year: 2013
Grading:Moonee Valley - Moonee Valley 2017 Heritage Study
Author: Context
Year: 2019
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