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LO-YUAN
84 Split Rock Road BEACONSFIELD UPPER, Cardinia Shire

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Cardinia Shire
Lo Yuan
Lo Yuan
Lo Yuan
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Statement of Significance

Lo-Yuan is significant to Victoria as a well-preserved and successfully designed Arts and Crafts style residence of the mid-1920s, created by the noted architectural firm, A & K Henderson, Alsop and Martin for the Rev. Thomas Howard-Smith, a missionary who had worked in China. Because of the high integrity of the house, its style and the documentation surrounding its early ownership, it is possible to interpret the site historically, in particular the Rev. Smith's interest in the Far East.

Lo-Yuan is a faithful expression of the life of an important Victorian missionary, the Rev. Howard-Smith, and is rare as an intact Arts & Crafts Bungalow, with eastern styling.

Lo-Yuan and its garden setting are also important to the Cardinia Shire as a notable example of one of the district's residential retreats and adds greatly to the variety of housing and gardens in the district. This place is also significant for its comparative age, judged within the shire's major development eras (post First War).

State & Local Significance

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    • Physical Description 1

      LO-YUAN - Physical Description 1

      This well preserved Arts & Crafts attic-style house is clad with stained vertical (upper walls) and rusticated boarding (lower), has tall red brick chimneys, has a series of steeply gabled corrugated-iron clad roofs, and deep strutted eaves. The house has an overall character which is both expressive of the owner's interest in the Far East and the designer's interest in Arts & Crafts architecture. A single level hipped roof section is at one end, with window bay attached and there are extensive insect-screened sleep-out balconies on both levels facing south and east. Typically the window joinery is picked out as trim against the dark walls, in this case using white, with the associated upper-level shutters and narrow hoods added to the trim on the north side. The entrance is inset under two tapering portal-brackets, in the Eastern manner, and between two multi-paned windows.

      The Garden The property is entered by a curving gravel drive, lined with gums. Mature planting includes Arbutus unedo (Irish strawberry), Liquidambar var., Acmena smithii (lillypilly), Quercus palustris (pin oak ), Trachycarpus fortuneii (Chusan palm), Camellias, and a silky oak. There is a very large oak (Q. Cerris?) to the south of the house, tree ferns, a weeping elm, Acer palmatum, a Japanese cherry and persimmon. Much of the planting is contributory to the house era and style.

      Physical Conditions

      LO-YUAN - Physical Conditions

      Extensive pergolas appear to have been added at the entry but otherwise the house is externally near unchanged.

      Historical Australian Themes

      LO-YUAN - Historical Australian Themes

      Historical Themes

      7.1 Gentlemen's rural retreats

      10.3 Rural retreats, gardens

      Physical Description 2

      LO-YUAN - Physical Description 2

      Associations - Howard-Smith, Rev. Thomas; Henderson Alsop & Martin; Watson, Thomas & Vera

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Cardinia - Cardinia Shire Heritage Study 1996

      Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
      Year: 1996
      Grading: Local

Public contributions

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