THE SURROUNDS LAYOUT AND FORM

OF SPANISH MISSION STYLE

OF THE 1920s

GRADUATE REPORT FOR THE MASTER OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (CONSERVATION) UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

D M TAYLOR B Larch

1989 UNIVERSITY OF N.S.W. 2 9 JUN 1990 LIBRARY TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

ABSTRACT iv

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER

1 ORIGIN OF SPANISH MISSION STYLE 2

2 INTRODUCTION TO SPANISH MISSION IN AUSTRALIA 8

3 THE ARCHITECTURE OF SPANISH MISSION 1 9

4 INTRODUCTION TO AUSTRALIAN DESIGN IN THE 1920S 30

5 SURROUNDS TO SPANISH MISSION 3 8

CONCLUSION 6 5

REFERENCES 6 7

APPENDIX

I CONSERVATION GUIDELINES 6 9

II 1920s TYPICAL GARDEN FOR A 7 3

III SPANISH MISSION GARDEN AT MOSMAN, NSW 7 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY 7 8

ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Fig 1 11

Fig 2 14

Fig 3 15

Figs 4 and 5 17

Fig 6 18

Fig 7 21

Fig 8 23

Fig 9 24

Fig 10 28

Fig 11 33

Fig 12 34

Fig 13 44

Figs 14 and 15 46

Fig 16 47

Figs 17 and 18 49

Fig 19 50

Fig 20 54

Figs 21 and 22 58

Figs 23 and 24 59

Figs 25 and 26 60

Fig 27 and 28 62

Fig 29 64

Fig 30 73

Fig 31 75

Fig 32 77

ill ABSTRACT

This report examines the surrounds to Spanish Mission houses in the following areas:

(i) Spanish Mission Style of architecture, its origins and adaptation to residential and commercial types in from around 1890 to 1915

(ii) The introduction of Spanish Mission architecture into

Australia and its rise in popularity from 1925 through to around 1936. One of the reasons for its popularity being the cultural influence of the .

(iii) Many of the houses built in Australia were not true the

Spanish Mission style as they borrowed forms and materials from the Bungalow Style. New concepts of external living areas were introduced, such as loggias and courtyards.

(iv) The general garden influences and attitudes of the 1920s are examined, the cultural influence of England and the

Meditteranean. Reference is made to garden designers in particular Edna Walling.

(v) The gardens of the Spanish Mission style are examined.

The Meditteranean landscape elements associated with the house and the incorporation of Australian native flora into are noted.

IV INTRODUCTION

The surrounds to Spanish Mission style houses are distinctive for their landscape treatment. It is the purpose of this report to establish what makes these gardens distinctive and the factors that have been responsible for their form.

In investigating the form and layout of the gardens, the

Spanish Mission style of architecture is described, its origin in California and the architectural and cultural influences from which the style derived. The introduction of the architectural style to Australia is noted, as are the reasons for its introduction, its spread and location. The architectural characteristics are described which establish the Spanish

Mission style. These architectural characteristics are described due to the integration of the architecture with the surrounds.

The attitudes to gardens and landscape in the 1920s are described and the influence of garden designers Edwin

Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. Local practitioners, in particular Edna Walling, are noted and attitudes to the landscape and gardens described.

The above discussion places the Spanish Mission style in its context and brings together the introduction of the style and attitudes to the existing landscape.

The surrounds to Spanish Mission gardens are then described in detail and the relationship of the house to the garden. Chapter 1

ORIGIN OF SPANISH MISSION STYLE

The Spanish Mission style of architecture can be traced back

to the Spanish missions that were built circa 1769 to 1823 in

by the Franciscan monks while

California was under Spanish rule. The missions were in

valleys isolated from other settlements in locations dominated

by the surrounding landscape. The architectural composition

and elements were the result of the influence of Spanish

architecture and a climate which featured hot southern

Californian summers.

The landscape surrounding the missions was semi-arid and were surrounded by rolling hills clothed in native scrub interspersed with rocky outcrops. The missions were located on small knolls within the valleys, the rolling hills behind providing a backdrop to the mission building. The immediate surrounds to the missions were cleared of the native scrub leaving a broad area of gravel/dirt to allow for wagons and carts. The mission building dominated the immediate surrounds with no planting being placed external to the building except for, in some instances, isolated palm trees.

Landscape treatment within the buildings was restricted to a courtyard, which featured a well, formal garden and vegetable gardens. The missions, being isolated, required a certain degree of self sufficiency, with access to water being a prime consideration. The lack of water and religious purpose of the missions did not encourage time spent on the landscape surrounds to the mission. 3

Their architectural style reflected the poor supply of building

materials and led to experimental workmanship and

simplified design. The missions were made out of adobe bricks

and featured massive walls with buttressing. Architectural

elements included a large patio with fountain and garden,

broad unadorned wall surfaces, wide projecting and low

pitched tile roofs. Other features included arcaded corridors,

arches on piers, curved pedimented gables, terraced bell

towers and lanterns.(1)

With the development of California after the gold rushes of

the 1840s and 1850s, the Spanish missions became a

prominent element of Hispanic past. The 1880s brought

development of tourism to California, especially from the

eastern seaboard of the United States. The missions became an

integral part of the promotion of the State.

In 1884, Helen Hunt Jackson published the book Ramona,

featuring the missions and their lifestyle and popularised the missions throughout the United States. Following the success of the book, United States railways organised 'Ramona' style tours which featured the missions as part of their itinerary

and as result the missions became firmly entrenched as a major image of California.(2)

The first major building that reflected the mission style was

Leyland Stanford Junior University, located just north of San

Francisco. In late 1886 Stanford hired landscape architect 4

Frederick Law Olmstead and the Boston firm of Architects

Shepley Rutan and Coolidge to plan the university. Olmstead cited climatic reasons for erecting buildings suitable for

California, commenting on the state's climatic similarity to

Syria, Greece, Italy and Spain. Newspaper articles nominated

the buildings as Californian in style without any prompting

from the architects involved.(3) The form of the university

with its arcades and courtyards borrowed the mission style,

but the university can really be described as Richardson

Romanesque with its roughly cut sandstone walls and Roman

arches. Hispanic names were given to the streets and

dormitories of the university to provide a Spanish

influence. (4)

Stanford University represents a transitional style of mission

revival in form and layout, with romanesque detailing. Palm trees featured extensively as the formal landscape elements,

with the native bush retained to . periphery of the site.

Following this development architects in the early 1890s

attempted to focus on the mission style architecture. Patios

and enclosed courtyards of houses were illustrated with tropical foliage and palm tree imagery. With opening of the

Columbian Exposition in 1893 the mission revival style of building became a more accepted architectural style. This was due to the impact of the Californian which was designed in the mission revival style. By 1897 mission revival style was entrenched in California and was part of the states 5

imagery. Its use started in residential design with a number of houses being built in the style.(5) Grilles and other ornamentation that would become a recognised characteristic began to appear later in the early 1900s.

Various public buildings were designed throughout California

in what became known as the 'mission style'.(6) The style did not really become popular until after 1906 when it was

applied to many types of buildings. These included schools,

service stations, bridges and apartment blocks. The style provided cheap ornamentation that gave the buildings an exotic look especially to apartment blocks, where in some

instances a was included. (7)

In 1915 and 1916 the Garden City company of California published Ideal Homes in Garden Communities, suggesting the mission revival to be the best for Califomias 'Garden Cities'.

The style found support in both the and the American cement industry. The Arts and Crafts movement analysed the style as evocative of a tranquil and more meaningful existence. The Mission style possessed a

'simplicity that visually paralleled monastic life.' (8) As the style became more popular and commercial, the Arts and

Crafts movement applied its philosophy to other areas of design. The American cement industry saw the mission revival style as a suitable vehicle to display both reinforced concrete and cement render as a finish.(9) 6

Mass produced books were available on the concrete bungalow style many of the styles featuring Spanish or

Mission, and anyone could choose a design and submit a bid

for the building. The result was that thousands of mission

style buildings were individually poorly designed and all but obliterated the distinctiveness of the early style.(10)

Spanish mission received a boost in promotion when in 1915 the Panama Pacific Exposition opened in . The New

York architect Bertram Goodhue was appointed to the

architectural directorship and nominated that the

Churrigeresque style from Mexico should be the theme of the exhibition. The of the exposition drew inspiration from the large Spanish American public buildings and churches and thus did not have any direct relevance to domestic scale design (11)

The romantic qualities of the style made a deep impact on the visitors to the exposition and revived interest in the Hispanic past of California. The popular bungalow style, originally from a humble domestic idiom did not suit the newly affluent people who wished to exhibit their wealth or success. (12)

The growing influence of Hollywood with its escapist and romantic qualities provided a make-believe world, one that could be identified with as Californian and isolated from the busy life of American business. California had been promoted as a land of sunshine which had attracted immigrants 7

dissatisfied with the lifestyle of the east coast. Spanish

Mission style could be applied to many scales of development

from a modest dwelling to the largest and most impressive

houses. This large scale application was demonstrated in San

Simeon, the huge stucco castle built by the newspaper

magnate Randolph Hearst.

Spanish Mission was adapted to many types of buildings and

took over from the bungalow style as the major residential

style in California. Variations of the style appeared in Texas

and Florida, with isolated examples in the North Eastern area of the United States. Spanish Mission remained very much

associated with the hotter areas of the United States and became the prominent resort style of Florida, the main practitioner being Addision Mizner. Spanish Mission in the

United States was noted as a prominent architectural style in the 1920s and 30s. Palms and spiky such as cactus were the dominant landscape elements associated Spanish Mission.

The use of the style in California for large houses built for the

Hollywood movie stars had a strong bearing on the application of Spanish Mission in Australia. We will now look to the Spanish Mission in Australia and the forms that it took. 8

Chapter 2

INTRODUCTION OF SPANISH MISSION TO AUSTRALIA

The introduction of the Spanish Mission architectural style into Australia was preceded by the other American architectural influence of the time. This was the California bungalow style which preceded it by approximately 10 years.

Spanish Mission and California Bungalow were part of the

American cultural influence that had become stronger from the early 1900s. Preceeding this time Victorian and Edwardian influences had been dominant.

The California bungalow style had become very popular in

Australia from the late 1900s. It was the first of the American influences in architecture (in particular Californian) that was to shape the attitudes and housing of south east Australia.

In November 1907 the magazine Building published pictures of some 'quaint American homes'. The houses were designed by Greene and Greene in the Pasadena area.(l) In the next decade, the California bungalow and how it could be adapted to the Australian conditions was a major source of architectural comment on domestic housing design.

By the end of World War 1 many of the houses being built in

Australia were influenced in some way by the California

Bungalow style.

Spanish Mission architecture was slower than the California

Bungalow to become an accepted form of building in 9

Australia. By the 1920s the California Bungalow was

entrenched in the domestic idiom and the style was strongly

identified with the working class. In major new suburbs such

as Concord and Daceyville, many of the houses heavily

influenced by California Bungalow style.

Spanish Mission style followed but never took over from the

bungalow style which remained the preserve of the middle class. Apperely in Svdnev Houses 1914-1939 concludes that the

Spanish Mission was:

"never more than a revival of an architecture that had flourished in California under Spanish rule and was saved from being a mere pastiche of ideas by the generally similar climate and terrain in Sydney and the coastal areas of

California "(2)

The rise and popularity of the Spanish Mission style was however part of the gradual transferance from Britian to

America of Australia's cultural allegiance, which had been occurring from the early 1900s. The increasing identification with the United States and in particular California increased

Australian awareness of overseas fashion and taste.

Parallels between Australia and California were pointed out in the trade journals and magazines of the time. Both Australia and California were young and growing communities, optimistic about the future of low density or, as they were known, 'garden suburbs'. Garden suburbs had been developed in such areas as Haberfield where Richard Stanton had 10 developed a residential enclave.(3) Many of the so called garden suburbs really were not more than spread out developments of the subdivisions that had preceded them.

There was minimal attempt to create small pocket parks and other garden suburb features. The first major garden suburb in Sydney, the result of a design competion, was Daceyville, buildings of which were designed in part by Peddle Thorp and Walker in 1912-13.(4) Other garden suburbs included the

City View estate in designed by Walter Burley

Griffin in 1927.(5)

Californian architectural styles became popular because they were unlike the architectural styles of the east coast of

America or Europe and were regarded as more appropriate models for Australian architecture. Many of the articles in magazines of the 1920s refer to the quality of Australian light striking walls and the deep shadows in recesses to entries through loggias etc and in a reference to a Spanish Mission house in Sydney the entrance porches were as 'deeply shadowed as any doorway in sunny Spain.' (6) There was a a greater awareness of light, sun and air as therapeutic remedies for the population at large. The adoption of the

American house layouts that featured minimal passages and garden courtyards to houses provided greater flexibility of the house arrangement both outside and inside. These layouts encouraged a more informal atmosphere and one that provided an atmosphere for change. 11 CITY VIEW ESTATE l*t SECTION Plan of Melbourne's First Garden Suburb

¥ T uk«-s but little foresight to see into the future so far as the tl I growth of Melbourne suburb* is concerned. You have only to I look back into the past and compare it with the present. Take Henry Scott to secure tl suburb* like Coburg, Camberwell, Caulfield — where, a few year* , the service* of Mr Walter Burley Griflln t ago, only |taddocks greeted the eye. TODAY ARE STREETS and own as Melbourne's first Garden Cit, STREETS OF lfOCSKS. Thoae who bought land in theae suburbs aployes of the industries to live close to their work, und before the development, are now reaping the reward of their initiative and faith in the future of Melbourne. The same opportunities exist ideal conditions, and minus heavy travelling expenses. today. CITY VIEW ESTATE is within the 7J mile radius at the junction The first section, comprising 100 acre*, has been subdivided in 4 50 lot of buck ley street and North road — both Government roads------adjoining of which 25 acres has been devoted to Park space. A central park . the City of E—endon, , ;■ - -• 11 acres and a School site of 2) acres have been set apart. The halain The complete area comprises 1000 acres, and is the only large section of Park space has been allotted for private parks at the rear of ea< ■ >f land located within the 7J mile radius; also adjoining as it doe# home, materially adding to the investment value of each lot, ai the City of Easendon. our largest northern suburb, it offers the scope ensuring that children do not play In dangerous thoroughfares. Ukmes l\Z rllilwi*/ C* l!!L* Suu Jdne" to"olVnrounder^nltrSoton Over 160 lot. h... been mid durtni the put month. M.k. your deei.i at a cost of £452,000, will make available sidings for factoriea (100 now to fill in the coupon. Investment in a ljd. sump brings yoi acres with one mile of railway frontage have »>een set apart for without obligation, an illustrated plan and full particulars. Investigate factoryactor)’ sitessites). The Morwrll Power Line, adjacent to the new Rail wav, now mean the foundation of your fortune. nsures adeqi under con struct ion .m'ple »“.r * suppll LOW PRICES Nominal Deipoasit £1 PER MONTH ■ Ba 7 years’ Terms Prices from £65 6 per cent. Interest HENRY SCOTT SUBDIVIDER & HOME BUILDER CHANCERY HOUSE — 4*5 BOURKE STREET, MELBOURNE ’Phone F5146 (2 line.)

Fig 1 Garden suburb layout in Melbourne by Walter Burley

Griffin ( Australian Home Beautiful Jan 1928) The Spanish Mission style did not really become popular until after 1925 when the influence of Hollywood became stronger and the popularity of the California Bungalow had come to an end in California. Before 1925 it was noted that "the Mission

Style is being introduced in Sydney and Melbourne but the people are not responding with enthusiasm."(7) There were some early examples of Spanish Mission, one being at

Bariston Avenue in Cremorne built in 1913.(8) However little of the features of the style in the 1920s and 30s were apparent. The rise of Hollywood as a major cultural influence on the 1920s made Spanish Mission more acceptable as a building style. Spanish Mission became associated with glamour and a high lifestyle distancing itself from the

California Bungalow style which remained popular with the working class.

Spanish Mission with its architectural features of white stucco walls and coloured Cordova tiles had an air of a culture transposed from another country. The lack of a popular cultural background in Australia did not endear the style to the more popular taste and it was generally built by a more select clientele and found popularity with the affluent middle class in the 1920s and 30s. An example of this affluent style is

'Boomerang', located at Elizabeth Bay.

In the 1920s and 30s various styles were popular in the domestic market. Spanish Mission style competed with Neo

Georgian (made popular by Hardy Wilson) and the Mediterranean style (designed amongst others by Professor

Wilkinson). Both these styles were popular in the 1920s having stylistic similarities to Spanish Mission in the use of stucco and overall proportions of the houses. Architects of the

Spanish Mission style included Alan Stafford who designed houses in Mosman and Rose Bay and E W Sankey, who was responsible for flats in Bellevue Hill and Bondi.

Major influences in Australia of the time were magazines, both Australian and American. Prominent was the Melbourne based Australian Home Beautiful. This magazine featured new developments both in Australia and overseas. In the 1920s and early 1930s Californian architecture dominated the pages of

Australian Home Beautiful as the most photographed overseas area. Photographs were taken by visiting Australian architects and others were regularly published. Due to the popularity of Spanish Mission in California most of the articles featured Spanish Mission as the prominent style, with less emphasis on other styles such as Mock Tudor.

Typical of the articles was one by E H Me Michael, an architect from Adelaide writing an article for Australian

Home Beautiful he noted that:-

"the majority of smaller middle class homes followed a

Spanish design....The predominance of this type was a remarkable feature."( 9 )

Architects in particular were exposed to American subdivision practices with their provision of entry identification to the estates, trees in the street verges and sealed streets kerbed and guttered. These practices were not common in Australian subdivisions, where the provision of basic services such as sewerage was not guaranteed, but electric light and power were more frequently provided.

There was considerable comment about the advantages and disadvantages of the style. Comments relating to the suitability and the flexibility of the style were noted for the

Australian climate.

Courtyards and loggias to the Spanish Mission style were photographed and commented upon in magazine articles of the time. One such photograph shows the owner perched rather awkwardly on a seat 'enjoying' the courtyard.(lo)

Porches and courtyards featured as part of the architecture with some outdoor table settings being featured but in general the courtyards and external spaces were photographed without a hint of their use. Australians who welcomed a change in domestic style of housing, this change was mainly concentrated in the south eastern part of

Australia with some isolated examples in Hobart and Perth.

Spanish Mission was not popular in Brisbane due to the tropical and humid climate. The use of outdoor space was more slowly adopted. This will be discussed in the following chapter. 1 5

FROM CALIFORNIA Mr L Simpson. a New Zea­ lander who has spent up­ wards of twenty years in America, sends us these photographs of typical Cali­ fornian residences erected in San Francisco and during the past two or three years

U,r I. I*M IJ

Fig 2 Houses from California ^Australian Home

BeautifuKMav 1936) 1 6

Fig 3 Houses from California (Australian____ Hone

BeautifuKJune 1925) The vwalled inner courtyard is a pleasant place in which to spend a quiet hour, for it is sheltered from the weather in summer while catching all the sunlight in winter.

Fig 4 Courtyard being 'enjoyed' (Australian Home Beautiful

July 1929)

Fig 5 'American Layout'

(Australian Home Beautiful July 1929) 1 s

From the concrete columned one steps up on to a small flagged court, crazy-paved in natural stone—and lo, what a view! How happily may one here be entertained at tea! How comfortably may one bask in the sunshine! Beyond the wall is the garden as shown in the opposite pic­ ture. The small Wrought iron gate at the right opens into the front porch.

Fig 6 Porch in Sydney (Australian Home Beautiful May 1936 ) Chapter 3

THE ARCHITECTURE OF SPANISH MISSION

As previously noted, Spanish Mission style was generally built for a select middle class clientele. Houses built in the style were often located among established residential areas.

Typical areas in Sydney in which Spanish Mission was popular were the suburbs of Rose Bay, Bellevue Hill, Point

Piper and Bondi in the eastern suburbs, Manly, Mosman and

Turramurra on the north shore.

With large estates being subdivided there was an opportunity to build on what were the rambling gardens of Victorian mansions. The informal architectural style of Spanish

Mission lent itself to what was in some cases odd shaped and steeper sites that had resulted from the breakup of the estates.

Many of the houses were located a short distance from the street frontage, often around 1 to 2 metres from the front boundary of the property. In some instances wing walls from the house were located on the boundary, enclosing courtyards and service areas to the house. Garages were usually incorporated in these wallings, presenting a united facade to the street, to which they direct access. Hints of the gardens and surrounds could be gained through small wrought iron openings in the stucco and tile capped walls. 20

However the majority of the houses featured a conventional setback to the street, within the dictates of the subdivision. In

Melbourne the corner block was used in Monstadt Avenue,

Ripponlea adjacent to Los Angeles Court.(1) In new subdivisions, Spanish Mission could be selected among a number of styles in the builder's catalogue. Many of the houses built in the Spanish Mission style followed traditional

Bungalow form, planning and layout with the style being realised only in the applied decoration on the house. The features of Spanish Mission (courtyards, loggias, free internal planning, flexibility of external spaces) were not incorporated into the designs.

However the new layouts, where applied, provided benefits to the Melbourne owner of a Spanish Mission style house who stated:

"The advantages of a Spanish house are, first, that the plan doesnt really matter. You can fit a suitable elevation onto anything. The second is that open terraces enable you to have the sun through the windows in winter, and, with a coloured linen awning there is ample shade in summer, and at the same time provide your house with a brilliant decorative feature. A third advantage is that you can use color - provided you do it properly " (2)

The author (referred to in (2) ) did not like backyards and took advantage of a change of level to create ' a little plaza' onto which double doors from the opened. 2 1

Where Individuality of Plan, with Harmonious Grouping Combine in Pleasing Prospect

Emm* Design m»d Street Cam- K ruction bf DOOLAN* GOODCH1LD, M.VXS„ I irmnd Snttyin,

BRUCE COURT PARKSIDE STREET ELSTERNWICK •». EltUrwwick Dutrirt Bowling Clwb

npO completely dewlap a nUnna has I been (he happy object of Wo. Whine and Sons in das charming prospect ad Bence Coeirt, Ebeerawidc. Working to a predetermined plan of poop­ ing a number of individual and artnek hove in ok harmonious design, the outcome has the advantage of not only becoming colorfully communal, but also the enhancing of the financial and attractive value of each house. Wen. White A Sana invite yon bn inspect these modem and exchusive, hiple floaded booses, with every Labor -

MODERATELY PRICED On Exceptionally Easy Ternas A Bepmialativo will ho thorn at aB two. Wm. White & Sons Builders, ReJ Estate end Fmeneiel Agents FftsttlJupj lsgg. 27 Clenhuntly Road. (opp. Station) ELSTERNWICK Developing end Budding Exdndvel, m Ehtevnwiek- Brighton Ditfritt. Ph— Wind, not ------After Urn, XEU*

Fig 7 'Spanish' Bungalows being offered for sale (Australia Home Beautiful May 1929) 22

Leslie Perrott, an architect from Melbourne writing in the

Australian Home Builder in May 1925 noted that:

"mission style houses have a freedom of aspect that contrasts with the stiff and now commonplace Queen Anne. Compared with the still more dull and heavy mid Victorian mansion type of an earlier day the mission style homes score a brilliant aesthetic success "(3)

The houses that were built in the Spanish Mission style were generally one and two stories high. They were either set back from the road or located immediately adjacent to the street.

The flexibility of the layout allowed the designer to take advantage of the aspect for the placement of courtyards and/or loggias to the periphery of the house.

The elements of the house are described as follows.

Layout

Plans attempted to be informal with T shaped layouts and extensive use of verandahs with multiple arches entry porches and a 'porte cochere' to the side of the house in selected examples. The style had a number of variations which featured the architectural elements noted above. The style became blurred with the bungalow idiom of wide eaves with a roof of Marseilles tiles as various practitioners provided their version of Spanish Mission. 23

Fig 8 Spanish Mission house in South Yarra where 'the Plan doesn't matter' Note the palm in the garden (Australian Home

Beautiful Septl929) 2 4

August 1, 1930 THE AUSTRALIAN HOME BEAUTIFUL

A glimpse of the garden.

tAIQlNIA tO AD the nine months since the building of the house was completed. Herewith is a ground plan showing the arrangement of the upper and lower floors and the layout of the grounds. A Kudy of the photographs hung in the Town Hall—some of which are reproduced on these pages and on page 60—will •how that the interior treatment and the furnishing are in harmony with the exterior. Mr Snedden’s trip abroad was mainly but not entirely a business visit and the ideas on the building of a home which he and his wife acquired have resulted in an extremely interesting house that might have The diningroom been transplanted from the hills of sunny California. (See also pages 33 end 60).

Fig 9 Spanish Mission House, Melbourne (Australian Home Beautiful August 1930) 25

It was commented in Australian Home Beautiful that 'so many houses are labelled Spanish these days that the term is in danger of being discredited.'(4) The architectural theme had already been modified by the realisation of projects in

California, many of which were observed by visiting

Australian architects.

Courtyards were located at the front, side and rear of the house. Walls extending from points on the house, made to look like buttresses in some instances provided an opportunity for the placement of external living spaces.

The concept of external living spaces was new to house layouts. The California Bungalow, the most popular style at the time, was fairly rigid, with a formal front facade to the street mounted with one or a series of roof gables. It did not, despite an attempt at informal internal layouts allow for differences in aspect and the opening out of living spaces to the sides of the houses. In Spanish Mission, the breakup of the roof surfaces with small gables and multiple ridges, combined with the multi coloured roof tiles created an air of informality which encouraged links to the external spaces

(loggias, courtyards) located around the houses.

Spanish Mission style was applied to a number of different building types. These included flats, service stations and movie houses. The latter were especially prominent, the style being applied to the latest and biggest 'palaces'. Prominent 26 examples were the Plaza in Melbourne and the Century in

Sydney.

Architectural elements

Spanish Mission is identified by a number of particular architectural elements. These include:

•Courtyards

•Light toned exterior wall finishes generally colour washed stucco

•Medium to high pitched roofs with red to diapered Cordova tiles

•Forms and textures suggesting lime washed adobe walls built by unskilled labour

•Gabled chimney tops

•Louvred shutters to the windows

•Ornamental metal work in gates, balustrades and closers for the window shutters.

• Names to houses

Areas of decoration concentrated in moulded stucco around openings including plaques, grilles and barley sugar columns as a foil to the plain wall surfaces. The overall feeling was of a picturesque informality in both form and detail.

Names of houses were always of a Spanish or Mediterranean idiom. Typical examples include San Jose, Palomar, Casa di

Lucia and Vino del Mar. The names were located on the front wall/fence. The names were either on a hand painted, brightly coloured tile or on a brass name plate. 27

The colours of the house were generally dominated by the off

white stucco, with window frames, doors and timber trims in a deep ultramarine or similar contrasting colour. Local

sandstone was used as a special trim to entrances in some examples.

Internal treatment

The treatment of internal spaces varied with the taste of the architect, builder or owner. The guiding sentiment was that homes of a comparatively simple type were good examples to follow from and one should 'bring into the modern Australian home something of the character of old Spain'.(6) Ceilings were treated with timber, and structural timbers either left plain or of a carved design. Walls were plain stucco or roughly plastered to mimic the rudimentary trades. They were painted in off white or deep colours of jade green or deep reds. Fire places being a major element of the living room, came in for special treatment. The canopied or Spanish type of fire place were popular with the chimney diminishing in size as it reached the ceiling. Barley sugar shaped column supports matching the external columns to the verandahs were provided to support the sides of the . One example featured a recess above the fireplace in which was placed an alabaster urn "which when alight sheds a soft glow all over the room".(6) 28

Fig 10 Picture of internal room

(Australian Home Beautiful July 1929) Floors were either covered in carpet using a Spanish motif or of polished timber boards were used combined with persian rugs laid as a feature to the centre of the room.

Furniture was manufactured to a Spanish flavour. These designs featured shaped and sawn out supports that provided a rustic visual character to the room. 'Olde world tapestries' were popular featuring such subjects as Spanish galleons.

Calls were made at the time for the need for restraint of the internal furnishings. The quest was to provide a home which was comfortable and at the same time reflected the 'Spanish' fl avour.

Wrought iron was used in light fittings and in some cases internal doorways. Colour was used sparingly and was featured in the coverings of the furniture and cushions, multi-coloured book bindings and ceramic plates displayed on the mantlepiece or bookshelf. Soft furnishings such as flame coloured curtains and small Medici prints completed the picture. Curtains were also used as room dividers to arches between living, and dining rooms.

The overall feeling of the internal rooms was of a spare but richly decorated room with an overall expression of restraint, highlighting a subtle texture to the walls and concentrating the colour and texture into the soft furnishings. In general there was an attempt to capture a 'Spanish' character, interpreted in a local manner. Chapter 4

INTRODUCTION TO AUSTRALIAN GARDEN DESIGN IN THE 1920s

Despite the American influence in architecture, links with the empire in horticultural matters had remained strong in

Australia. This influence was reflected in the selection of the plants found in gardens which followed the traditional, in the main English plantings, with a restricted palette of Australian native plants. Exhibition borders, mixed feature planting, clipped and topiaried shrubs treated as features in , continued to be standard detailing for the surrounds of houses, independent of the architectural style. The horticultural aspects of prize specimens such as standard roses, topiary hedges and specimen planting were features to which the average aspired to. The garden was to be kept neat and tidy with the lawn providing an important element contrasting to the architecture of the house.

An example of the typical attitudes of the 1920s is an

'informal garden' featured in the The Garden Lover of

September 1929. In the layout Fig(30) the garden is dominated by large expanses of lawn front and rear with an informal path, leading to the front door laid in a crazy pattern with grass jointing. In the front garden feature trees are exotic such as Picea pungens var glauca and Ginkgo biloba with large areas of garden beds for annuals and perennials.

Australian native plants are used as a hedge (Melaleuca hvpericifoli a) and as selected background trees. (Eugenia 3 1 mvrtifoliaH 1)

The features a number of productive plants such

as plums and almonds with a vegetable garden located in a corner behind the Australian native hedge (Westringia sp.)

The layout is fairly formal despite the design being nominated as 'an informal garden' with not a great attempt to disguise the rigid boundaries of the block.

General garden advice was dispensed by a number of garden

advisors including Edna Walling, who became well known through her articles in Australian Home Beautiful published

in the 1920s and 30s. She was influential in guiding and forming landscape taste from suburban allotments to large country estates. Her philosophy is probably summed up by the statement: 'There are many possible approaches to Australian garden design, and they all reflect the designers individual response to gardens.'(2)

Edna Walling was influenced amongst others by the work of

Gertrude Jekyll, a prominent landscape designer in England.

Gertrude Jekyll used many plants native to the area in which she was designing for use in dry rock walls, mixed borders and tree plantings. Her designs made use of walling as enclosures and water as a feature to the garden. The overall structure of the gardens were designed by the architect

Edward Lutyens, working in conjunction with Jekyll. These 3 2 gardens and the country houses were featured in Country

Life, which was readily available in Australia.(3)

The designs of Edna Walling reflected the influence of

Lutyens and Jekyll in the strict layouts of some of her gardens. Walling also indulged in the more natural and wooded approach, generally in the larger commissions but in the tighter suburban allotments that she was asked to design, formal axes, , sandstone paths, features and vistas predominated. Laid over this formality were soft spillover planting to the walls and edges. Walling in her published works stressed the necessity of graceful evergreens and other plants being allowed to follow their natural shape and not be turned into 'domes and puddings'(4)

In the 1920s, Australian native plants, especially trees, were not popular in the domestic garden. The functional considerations of the backyard being the vegetable garden, drying yard and fruit trees did not leave much room where maximum sunlight was required. The front gardens emphasis on show and display of annuals restricted the use of trees on the block. Large native trees such as the typical Eucalyptus sp. were not accommodated and did not appear on the recommended plans for suburban blocks. The idea of retaining the Australian bush found popularity on steep and hilly sites where the native bush was difficult to clear and new plantings were hard to maintain.

Native promotions, selling days and exhibitions were 3 3

Fig 11 Edna Walling: Layout for a Blue Garden

(Australian Home Beautiful May 1929) 34

Fig 12 Edna Walling: Garden Layout

(Australian Home Beautiful March 1929) Australian flora and fauna were used by May Gibbs in the popular childrens story Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. In these stories Australian native vegetation was a prominent feature including the Banksia men, Lilly Pilly the society girl, wise old Mr Lizard and Kookaburra. This depiction of the

Australian bush provided a personality to the bush, which had hitherto been regarded as part of the antipodean wilderness, one that was kept away from the immediate surrounds of the house.

The growing awareness of the benefits and attractive nature of native plants focused within the Sydney metropolitan area, on the harbour, the northern shores of which, had remained substantially untouched.

The Australian Home Beautiful noted : much can be learned from the Sydney harbourside builder in the preservation of native flora. When he proceeds to plan a home in the leafy fastness, the first thought of the Sydney Architect is to preserve the trees. Usually he will find a profusion of lusty native growth both in the shape of shrubs and tall slender eucalypts.(6)

This retention of the native bush influenced the surrounds to the Spanish Mission houses located in these positions. In relation to the vacant land on Sydney Harbour foreshores

Edna Walling recommended that weeds, already a problem in the 1930s, be cleared and that major native trees be retained. 36

Arizona cypresses should be planted away from the native bush, with clusters of exotic shrubs such as Cistus sp. To finish the garden a pergola of rough plastered pillars and saplings overhead, reminding one of Italy... can be engineered into the slope supporting Solanum and Bouganvilleas,Wistaria and Clematis

(7)

The reference to Italy reflected the way in which Italian gardens were generally admired in coming to terms with their surroundings. The landform around Sydneys foreshores descending sharply to waters edge was seen to have similarities with the Italian countryside.(8)

The general planting plans suggested by Edna Walling consisted of both exotic plants and Australian natives. A typical scheme for a hillside garden included shrubs such as

Cistus, Helianthums, Plumbago sp., Echium cordata. Grevillea sp. and Felecia augustifolia. Taller plants included Cupressus africana and Cupressus sempervirens var stricta.

Hanging plants for spillover effect included F o r s v t h i a suspensa (Golden Bells),and Berberis thunbergia (Barberry).

Taller spillover plants included Philadelphus m ex i can a (Mexican mock orange) and Lavandular sp. This advice followed the recommendations contained in Mrs Philip

Martineaus book in Sunny Lands(9) which discussed the new gardens on the Riviera at the time. With the emphasis on the reappraisal of Australian sunlight and its effect and the corresponding Mediterranean influence on design, this book, amongst others would have provided a source of design ideas for local practioners. The theme of clear blue skies, similarities between California, Australia and the Mediterranean were a constant theme with the palm and eucalypt seen against a blue sky and sea being a substitute for cypress and olive of the Mediterranean.(10)

Other landscape designers provided landscape advice on various aspects of garden design. Olive Mellor, a landscape architect of the 1930s proposed different colour themes for gardens and arrangements for the drive. Mrs Martineau recommended that the colour be:

concentrated in the in brilliant shades massed on terraces nearest the house with orange and yellow bignonias...climbing over the facade and over steps and walls( 11)

In summary the garden influences were diverse, reflecting the cultural influence of England and looking to other areas, notably the Mediterranean, for inspiration and direction.

The result was an attempt to come to terms with new directions by absorbing new concepts but confined by practical matters of the garden being a working area of the house and holding on to familar forms, layouts and species. Chapter 5

SURROUNDS TO SPANISH MISSION

The architectural lines, stucco walls, deep shadowing of the entrances, brightly coloured cordova tiles and other architectural elements of Spanish Style stood out in the

Australian surrounds, not blending in with the colours of the landscape, as the California Bungalow had attempted to. The exotic nature of Spanish Mission architecture demanded a particular style of planting and garden layout for the successful translation of the style to Australia.

The traditional garden layout that formed the surrounds to housing styles that had preceded Spanish Mission such as

Queen Anne, were not appropriate for the Spanish Mission style as they were based on a philosophy from the English landscape tradition. They came from a climate that encouraged the cultivation of soft herbaceous plants, typified by the English Cottage style that was enjoying a revival in the

1920s. The California Bungalow, while not having a direct

European influence, integrated itself into elements of the

Australian environment by the use of colours and forms. The

Spanish Mission having no colours of an Australian nature and featuring a white stucco finish that stood proud in the landscape, required particular surrounds to integrate the architecture into the existing environment.

38 38a

The Meditteranean influence in garden design provided a

suitable model for the development for the development of

the gardens around the Spanish Mission houses.

The Meditteranean garden design approach had an inherent

flexibility, in the selection of appropriate species to provide

the required effect. The species used on the Riviera were a

combination of the native plants of the region and exotics,

many of which were Australian natives, including Acacia sp.

Australian native plants were used for their complimentary

shape, form and texture to the native plants of the Riviera

and their practical aspect of being drought resistant, a

feature that limited the scope of the Riviera plantings. The climatic considerations which forced people to note the

attributes of the local flora, provided a strong and consistent

rationale for the Riviera/Iberian gardens.

The basis of blending the fastigiate forms of the cypresses with the informal plantings of the Australian natives were laid down in the Riviera, which visiting Australians and

Americans observed. The influence of the Californian style through the Australian Home Beautiful, mentioned below, provided the American interpretation of the

Meditteranean/Iberian gardening style combined with the influence of the Missions and the demands of the Hollywood stars on their gardens to complement the architecture. 3 9

Photographs of the Spanish Mission style in California showed cypresses, palms and other plantings that were a combination of landscapes surrounding the original missions and 1920s Mediterranean influences. These photographs had a major impact on the type of planting that was used in the surrounds to the Spanish Mission house. This impression, combined with the local influence of landscape designers such as Edna Walling and magazine articles, constituted the main factors in the design of the surrounds to Spanish

Mission houses.

The Spanish Mission style through its journey to Australia was open to a number of local influences and interpretations.

It was closely identified with the Mediterranean style with its similar evocation of 'hot sunny lands'. Gardens were developed for the individual taste and requirements of the owners and designers. This allowed a certain flexibilty in the interpretation of the style. However, certain elements were recognised as the identifiable characteristics of Spanish

Mission gardens. The main characteristics include the courtyards and loggias, use of palms, cacti, succulents and other spiky plants, extensive use of rockeries and a generally studied casualness of detail, within an organised layout.

The Australian Home Beautiful was a major source of 40 information for the design of the garden. Articles on Spanish

Mission houses, including the garden, were published on a regular basis providing a constant flow of information about the style and its Australian derivatives. Articles were published discussing the original Spanish gardens and the house and surrounds of suburban allotments in Sydney and

Melbourne. The articles consisted of one or two pages of text interspersed with photographs. From these articles one could gain an idea of the concept and how it had been realised.

Writing in the Australian Home Builder (which preceded the

Australian Home Beautiful). Leslie Perrott, an architect from

Melbourne, noted that:

"As a rule, mission style houses need not have deep front gardens in fact there is a tendency to bring the elevation up to the streetline with portals opening on to the pavement. A few palms and tropical shrubs, a low balustraded streetwall and box hedge with small grass plots, provide excellent relief in greenery against the plain cement walls. "(1)

While there was an attempt to translate the idea of Spanish

Mission into the architecture, with varying degrees of success, these attempts generally did not flow with the same gusto to the garden. Few examples followed a sympathetic planting scheme that highlighted the architecture of the house.

Edna Walling in Australian Home Builder noted that

"Houses of Spanish design will be spoilt if the ground at the 4 1 walls is planted as it should around a English cottage; yet such anomalies may be seen on every side'".{2)

This concern was shared by other practitioners in Australia noting that there were a great number of Spanish houses not supported by suitable garden. In an attempt to correct this attitude the Australian Home Beautiful in July 1929 published an article titled 'A Few notes on the Spanish Garden' where it was stated that the two essentials of the garden in Spain "are the white stucco and the bright coloured tiles"'(3) It is interesting to note that the two major items noted of a Spanish garden are built elements with no mention of vegetation.

However, plants formed an integral part of the architectural composition in Spanish gardens. This was noted in the above article that:

"the Spaniards are not slow in realising the decorative effect of a carefully clipped vine against a lightly coloured wall and take great pains to train the branches into very interesting patterns. "(4)

While Spanish Mission was essentially Californian in its source, there were a number of references to the original

Spanish design for gardens. The inspiration for the gardens came more from Spanish and Mediterranean examples and not the Californian houses seen in the Australian Home

Beautiful.

For the form and layout of the gardens no reference is made of the surrounds to Spanish Mission in California except for the influence of subdivision layouts and the American methods of Estate design. The greatest influence regarding the Californian garden surrounds appears to be the photographs of Spanish Mission published in Australian

Home Beautiful and other magazines of the time. However the gardens do not feature to any large extent because of the size of the house on the land and the relative newness of the house. Aside from the established landscape of the Hollywood

Star houses new plantings of palms and selected shrubs gave a small hint of the form that the landscape was going to take.

Layout of gardens

The layout of gardens (one garden is indicated in Fig 30) follow both informal and formal patterns. The gardens tend to be formal in the immediate vicinity to the house where the enclosing elements of courtyards and pergolas dominate the immediate surrounds. Deliberate vistas and enclosures were created to be viewed from inside the house. The garden spaces generally flow from the loggias and courtyards located adjacent to the living rooms. Double doors, usually glass panelled lead from the living areas to the loggias and courtyards providing a strong visual link to the external areas of the gardens. These encourage the use of the external areas by an open relationship with the garden. Extensive areas of paving associated with the loggias and courtyards provide a hard surface for external entertaining and general use. The loggia and associated terrace followed the Riviera examples of Mrs Martineau where the terrace "should be the widest as it is likely to be used as a living room with or without an awning or pergola." In addition "it is important that the terrace be paved in tiles, brick or stone."( 5 )

Areas within the garden are defined by terraces or walls providing definition and enclosure to the spaces. Generally there are no extensive areas of around the house. The site coverage of the house and the nature of the contours on many of the sites encourage a division of the gardens into a series of compartments. Visual exposure to the street front where there is a substantial setback from the road is modified by shrub, tree planting and a garden wall to the boundary.

Examples such as 59 Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill are seen as set piece where the Cypresses and other plantings 'clothe' the house revealing areas of decoration and stucco walls.

The front of the house is considered as a composition to the road. The siting of a house is usually on the highest portion of the block, to take advantage of views. The gardens fall away from the house in a series of terraces or rockeries(or a combination of both) leaving the house clothed in cypresses, climbing roses and enframed by a selected native tree. 44

Fig 13 Layout of Spanish Mission house 'Corte Madera' in

Melbourne the plants to the front garden:-

Palm, Elm tree (existing)

Virburnum sp, Hibiscus sp., Delphiniums, Zinnias, Lavender and other small shrubs and perennials.

Back garden plants include:-

Ervthina sp, Magnolia sp, Choisva ternata.. Camelia sp. and

Virgilia capensis (^Australian Home Beautiful June 1929). 4 5

Garden Elements

Courtyards:

Courtyards and loggias are an integral part of Spanish

Mission gardens. They are located on the front, side and rear of the houses. They vary in size according to the available land, location and size of the house. The size of the courtyard is generally in proportion to the internal rooms, and adjacent to the living and dining rooms. They are in the majority laid in a crazy paving of sandstone, brick or concrete. Joints in between were of rough mortar or grass. This detail was consistent with rough cast stucco walls of the house and enclosing walls. The courtyards commonly featured ponds.

Wall treatment is consistent with the stucco walls to the house and varies in height from 300mm to over 2.5metres.

Planting is restrained, located in pots or in small planters to the edge of the space.

Waterfeatures.

Waterfeatures are usually located in the courtyards. They are positioned centrally or attached to a wall. The centrally located waterfeatures are usually a small pond approximately

1 metre in diameter round or geometric in shape with a singular thin spout of water to approximately 500mm in height, located in the centre of the pond. This detail follows

Spanish examples such as The Allambhra. The ponds are raised from the floor of the courtyard with a coping height of

300 - 500 mm in height. The finish is in a tile of an Islamic or a Spanish motif, coloured in a deep blue or selected colour. Fig 14 Spanish Mission house, Melbourne. Fountain at rear

f I 'HE Spanish houses that are genuinely true to type are few and far between in Victoria, although those that are incorrectly called so are legion. Indeed it is doubtful if the true Spanish house, which should have wall* that are feet, instead of inches, thick, a complete absence of eaves and their attendant spoutings, and with its room* built around an inner courtyard, is suitable for this climate. Far more satisfactory and no less picturesque are the houses where the distinctive Spanish style has been modified and adapted to suit Australian conditions. Of these a notable example is "Parana,” the home of Mr and Mrs E. L Thompson, in Burke Road, East Malvern. Here the architect. Mr Arnaud E. Wright, has built a delightful home of decidedly Spanish flavor which has yet lost nothing from an artistic point of view in being designed to meet the notorious vagaries of the Melbourne climate. The characteristic patio of the Spanish home has been kept and is a sheer delight with its gay sun blinds, its fresh-looking banks of greenery and its cool playing fountain, on the not summer days that are with us now. A non-Spanish feature is the wide eaves, a protection against the driving winter rains. Set well back from the road, the house is approached through a charming garden, where white "crazy** paths find their wav through trim green lawns to a central sundul. tW« kouM asd its dtkakifuil Fig 15 View to front Nearer the house young trees and tall shrubs make a bank

(Australian Home Beautiful Dec 1929) 4:

The entrance to the cloister and [above) the cloister itself. Note the handiome wrought iron work

Fig 16 'Boomerang' Internal Courtyard

(Australian—Home Beautiful April 1930) 48

Water features to the walls are of a semicircular shape with a wall spout located in the centre of the wall above the pond.

The spout is typically an animal motif for example a lion with a mane flared back onto the wall covering the connection to the wall. The wall treatment is of the rough cast stucco in some instances with a tile trim to the edge of the spout, completing the composition.

Fences

Front Fence

The front fence is usually a low masonry stucco wall, 300 -

1000 mm high finished to match the walls of the house. On uprights they are generally capped in a Cordova tile angled at 45 degrees. In cases where there are enclosed courtyards with walls to the street they are commonly 1.8-2.0 metres high or in more formal situations it is common to cap the whole wall with tiles placed at a 45 degree angle. Other fences feature timber panel inserts approximately 2 metres long, between stuccoed masonry uprights but this is not a common detail.

The colour of the fence is matched to the house which is usually off-white or grey. Side fences in most instances are the paling fences 1800mm high, following typical design of either lapped and capped or regularly spaced in single paling fence of standard design. There are also examples of an absence of the front fence to the house which followed the

American examples. AGA PAN THUS o- ORIENTALIS SANDSTONE 4 9 PAVERG-+

^ V A7AI FA KIJRIIMFo J § IGNEOUS ROCK WAII o___: TURF < > o«&&

Fig 17 Vino del Mar-detail of informal retaining wall to

garden (Author)

SANDSTONE PAVINGo gTURF RENDERED WALL 9

ifiiMM— MmiumimnnimmnrUHawi

Fig 18 Vino del Mar-detail of retaining wall to terrace

(Author) 50

oQ ^ ^ ^ *.0 - «■ ..,,0 ® •

0 7 4 i

Fig 19 Section to typical sapling pergola (Author) 5 1

Pergolas

Attached to the courtyard areas were pergolas. They varied in treatment from rough cast stucco columns with sapling timbers to more formal columns with hardwood timber horizontals and a detail to the end of the timber consistent with the detailing of the house. There is always a studied contrast between the horizontal bearers and the column uprights.

Pots

Garden pots are an important element in the overall composition to the garden. They are used to identify entries by flanking the entry doors to the house and to furnish the courtyard spaces and loggias around the house. Pots are also placed in the broader garden areas, at points of changes of level, at the termination of garden stairs or on the top of retaining walls within the garden. Typical is the oak barrel held together with a series of horizontal straps and with the top removed for the plants. More elaborate pots are those in a glazed tile with a Spanish motif, the motif tieing in with tiles in the rest of the house, for example on stair risers. Common also is the concrete pot, painted a bright colour.

Rockeries

Rockeries featured in Spanish Mission. In an effort to mimic the character of houses located in arid regions (the original missions) rockeries were a useful medium in perpetuating the landscape surroundings of a 'Mission'. One such example in Hobart, where the mild to cold climate did not endear the type of house to the local environment, the rockery provided a suitable landscape setting for the house. Palm trees and other warm climate species typical of Spanish Mission style, do not survive the rigours of a Tasmanian winter.(5) Rockeries featured 'casual' arrangements with stones varying in size from 300mm to 1 metre in diameter, interspersed with

Agapanthus orientalis and other hardy species.

Garden walls

An important feature of Spanish Mission gardens are the garden walls. The terraced nature of the garden and the location of many of the gardens on steep and awkward sites has made the garden walls a distinctive feature. Changes of level are treated in either a stuccoed masonry, finished sandstone or an informal rockery. Garden walls incorporated with paved terraces and loggias consist of stuccoed masonry matching the treatment to the house in texture and colour. A balustrade of wrought iron contains the external terrace or loggia and is mounted to the top of the wall. Garden walls in the remainder of the garden are commonly constructed of local stone or imported stone selected for its colour and character. Typical material used is flaked sandstone 100mm deep laid in horizontal bands. Other materials used included igneous rocks, red in colour, rounded on the edges and approximately 150mm to 250 mm in diameter. Typical heights of the walls are 700mm to 1100mm. The construction of the walls are generally dry packed with a finer granular fill behind the wall containing the base material to the terrace.

The walls were done in a studied naturalness with the incorporation of smaller rockery plants spilling over and through the walls.

Grills and gates

Metalwork and its decorative use is an important element to the furnishing of the garden. Gates to the entries are made out of metalwork featuring a barley sugar pattern. It is common to have a light incorporated in a frame centrally located above the entry gate. Metalwork is done in a style of a flamboyant curvilinear nature the actual metalwork treated in a barley sugar pattern, and terminated in a flush of circles and curves. The metalwork is painted in a dark colour usually black or a dark blue, matching the colour scheme to the house. 54

U*le have been left in the garden, and when the afternoon an shunes on the house front it etches deep shadows of niage on its white surfaces, which are not really white, u- brick wvalls having been washed a deep soft cream. The .lain waihted bocks give the house a mellow- feeling of age i j sofiidir>v, which could never have been imparted by stucco verpt afterr years of weathering. The right-hand portion of house front containing the lising-room is deeply re- vH-d. an open flagged terrace being set in the angle thus *rmed. iIn an arched doorway at the end of this wall a ass Soar—the glass being one dear single sheet—leads to the lining roam, and close by a large stone window-boa. sprodted lby heavy chains, hangs an the wall, giving an .-client ofpportumtv for unusual flower cfleet*. AKwve it he front door a small railed balcony n happily accd. and the addmon of green shuttrrs to the windows ves tin hcouse a pleasant, homely aspect, while not drtract g from itv• dignity. An archway, edged wdi ales, is built it from catch sadr of the house to the fence, screening dir th* which lead to the rear. or. m thu instance, to what rrallv the front of the housr. looking out over the harbor, x- ground slopes sharply away. aQowvjg of an extra storey be kailr un brneath dir loggu. Here is housed a laundry An ••tempi lo |«4 a pKtur of tas* d» mi on it* luxe. wTtth electric fetnags. tool sheds and storage spaces, fcky le«*«e .—The plMtsgrrk'r * **•» w i difficult d last, burr bv no means least, a bdhard room, with a can-

Fig 20 ’Casa di Lucia' Clifton Gardens, Sydney. Note the retention of the native trees and exposure of the rock ledges.

(Australian Home Beautiful Dec 1929) 5 5

Planting elements

The surrounds to the house combine a number of the commonly used plants of the time and a selection of distinctive plants that are identified with the housing type.

The distinctive plants of a Spanish Mission style house are the cypresses, palms and spiky plants such as agave amongst others.

Plants around Spanish Mission houses were used as distinctive architectural elements, integral to the creation of a setting for the houses. The use of cypresses located adjacent to the walls and palms in turfed areas are the most consistent of these plants. The gardens do not discriminate against the naturally occurring flora of the area. The native trees found on site were incorporated into the planting schemes. The native plants of the area were generally retained on the periphery of the site with clear sitelines of the house observed once inside the grounds. If a large existing tree was located adjacent to the house and it had a characteristic sculptural quality that was seen as a benefit for the overall scheme, it was retained. Typical of these trees include the

Angophora costata endemic to the Sydney harbour foreshores and a characteristic tree of a number of Spanish

Mission gardens in Sydney. This treatment of the flora indicates a maturing of Australians' attitudes to their landscape, an acceptance of a portion of their existing environment as found without the prejudices of the past. 56

Distinctive plants and their use.

Cypresses: Cypresses are an essential element of the garden.

They are located against walls the dark green and tall cylindrical shape providing a contrast to the areas of off white stucco. Typical species used are:

Cupressus sempervirens Italian Cypress

Cunressus sempervirens var stricta Roman cypress

Palms

Typically in turfed areas or in garden beds associated with shrubbery, palms are an essential item to the gardens providing a subtropical ambience.

Typical species are:

Archontonhoenix cunninphamiana Queen Palm

Butia capitata Wine Palm

Howea forsteriana Howea palm

Phoenix roebelenii Dwarf Date Palm

Trees both endemic to the site and planted include

AneoDhora costata Smooth Barked Apple

Acmena smith i i Lilly Pilly

Eucalyptus botrvoides

Eucalyptus robusta Swamp Mahogony

Brachvchiton acerifolia Illawarra Flame Tree

Jacaranda mimosifolia Jacaranda

Stenocarpus reticulatus Queensland Firewheel tree

Other trees used include

Musa sp. Banana 5 7

Shrubs

Shrubs are used for their distinctive leaf form and for background and screening to the houses. They are selected from the typical plants available from nurseries. These plants include the following:

Agave sp.

Azalea kurume Azalea

Azalea indica Azalea

Camellia japonica Camellia

Camellia sasanqua Camellia

Cactus sp. Cactus

Ceratopetalum gumminiferum Christmas bush

Cordvline stricta Cordyline

Cotoneaster sp. Cotoneaster

Ground Covers

Aeapanthus orientalis Agapanthus

Blechnum sp. Soft Fish Fern

Geranium sp. Geranium

Eriperon karvenisesvis Daisy

Todea barbara King Fern

This above is not exhaustive but is typical of the character of the planting of Spanish Mission gardens. There is a divergence of taste in the detail planting but the above list provides a plant character basis for the gardens. 58

F^ig 21 Warners Parade Bondi. Note use of Bill.—papitata ( Authors DhotoeraDhf

Fijg 22 Mandalong Road, Mosman. Note Phoeiix—roebelenii to fromt door and Howea forsteriana to rea' garden.(Authors ph otograph) tvjooaK niffgtT*<

Fig 23 Vino) del Mar, Mosman-entry. Note the tiled planter pot

Fig 24 Vino del Mar, Mosman-name to entry Expected page number 60 is not in the original print copy. 6 1

Fig 25 Vino del Mar Garden. Tree fernsfCvathera CooperiH with Smooth Bark Apple (Angophora costata) in background. (Authors photograph)

Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill. Fence detail (Authors photograph) 6 2

Fig 27 Vino del Mar, Mosman-use of wrought iron grill and stucco walls with Cordyline sp. to wall. (Authors photograph)

r. i

Fig 28 Vino del Mar

Opening to wall with

Strelizia sp. to front

(Authors photograph) 64

Fig 29 Vino del Mar-view up right of way (Authors

Photograph) 65

CONCLUSION

This report has examined the surrounds to Spanish Mission houses, particularly in Sydney.

To examine the surrounds it has been necessary to examine the origin of Spanish Mission Architecture in California and note the reasons for the style and its popularity.

The introduction of Spanish Mission style architecture in

Australia is limited and it did not find the popularity that other American imports had enjoyed, notably the California

Bungalow style.

As an introduction to the surrounds to the Spanish Mission style and the landscape and horticultural attitudes of the

1920s were examined to provide a basis for a comparison between the accepted designs and the realisation of gardens for Spanish Mission houses.

The surrounds to Spanish Mission houses incorporated a number of the architectural and landscape ideas of the 1920s.

The concept of loggias and courtyards to create protected outdoor living rooms and the incorporation of native flora endemic to the site combined with 'spiky plants' accentuating the off white walls of the houses and courtyards are examples of these ideas. 66

The surrounds to Spanish Mission are distinctive because of their incorporation of the above factors into a cohesive design. While the surrounds of Spanish Mission are not the only architectural style to incorporate a native flora theme,

(Neo Georgian and Mediterranean are two others), the use of the characteristic trees and shrubs combined with the architecture of the house^, to produce a distinctive quality. 6 7

REFERENCES

CHAPTER 1

Ingalls Los Angeles 1984 P 3 2 Ibid P 15 3 Ibid P 21 4 Ibid P 23 5 Ibid P 62 6 Ibid P 70 7 Ibid P 80 8 Ibid P 113 9 Ibid P 118 10 Ibid P 128 11 Apperelv R E Svdnev Houses 1914- 1939 M Arc UNSW 1972 P 100 12 Ibid P 101

CHAPTER 2 1 Seriopan N California Bungalow Unpublished Thesis University of New South Wales P 10 2 Apperely R E Ibid P 48 3 Kellv Max (Edl Svdnev A Citv of Suburbs UNSW Press 1987. P 59 4 Seriopan N Ibid P 57 5 Australian Home Beautiful Dec 1929 P 12 6 Australian Home Builder Mav 1925 P 51 7 Ibid P 8 Apperely R E Ibid P 109 9 Australian Home Beautiful Sept 1925 P 58 10 Ibid July 1929 P 30 68

CHAPTER 3 1 Australian Home Beautiful August 1929 P 30 2 Ibid Sept 1929 P 18 3 Ibid September 1925 P 24 4 Ibid December 1929 P 19 5 Australian Home Builder June 1925 P 27 6 Australian Home Beautiful June 1929 P 34

CHAPTER 4 1 The Garden Lover Sept 1929 P 184 2 Barrett, Margaret (Ed) The Edna Walling Book of Australian Garden Design Anne O'Donovan Pty Ltd 1980 P 139 3 Brown, Jane Gardens of a Golden Afternoon Allen Lane 1982 P 103 4 Australian Home Beautiful Nov 1925 P 35 5 Ibid March 1936 P 37 6 Ibid April 1926 P 30 7 Ibid Feb 1930 P 35 8 Ibid March 1933 P 21 9 Martineau, Mrs Philip Gardening in Sunny Lands Richard Coben Sanderson 1924 10 Australian Home Beautiful August 1928 P 16 11 Martineau, Mrs Philip Ibid P 165

CHAPTER 5 1 Australian Home Builder May 1925 P 24 2 Ibid July 1925 P 25 3 Australian Home Beautiful July 1929 P 34 4 Ibid July 1929 P 34

5 Martineau Mrs Philip Ibid P 63 69

Appendix 1

MAINTENANCE

An approach to the conservation of Spanish Mission gardens.

Gardens by their nature grow, evolve, mature and are replaced when either plants die or fashions change. Changes in a garden can occur on a seasonal, annual or lifetime basis with plants being changed for a number of reasons. These changes include unusual seasons where established plants can die through too much or too little water. The restoration of a garden will revive the original character. The succes of the work will depend on what basis the works have been constructed on. Due to the lack of garden plans of the time interpretation has to be made involving the following steps.

1 An assessment of the style as interpreted in the particular example. 2 Research old photographs and written material about the house and surrounds. 3 A close inspection of the garden, assessing its condition, planting types and evidence of any old plants that can be related to old photographs of the site. 4 An assessment of the physical evidence and what should be restored and what areas should be renovated.

Style Every garden has a distinct character which reflects all or parts of the original design. Also involved in forming the character of the garden is the aspect, location and response to the environment. Owners past and present may have had 'whims' or special 'likes' that have promoted a particular plant or material in the garden. A stylistic assessment of the garden will usually assist to establish • style of garden. • approximate age of garden related to the building and the planting. 7 0

• major alterations such as replacement of garden walls or plants not typical of the period. Very few gardens will be intact from the their original layout, form and planting. Where any alterations have occurred as found from photographs or other areas of research, it is important to locate the original portions if possible.

Research Old records if available, are useful in achieveing an authentic restoration. Even if the garden appears intact, an old photograph or written record may reveal different garden arrangements or fence designs. It is advisable to carry out an investigation to locate as much documentation as possible.

Heritage value It is always advisable to check with existing organisations such as local libraries, the Australian Heritage Commission, the National Trust of Australia and conservation groups. If the garden and/or the house has any historical value information will be available from the above organisations.

Close Inspection Of all the information gained through an appreciation of the style and documentary research, the most information may be gained from the garden itself. There will be gardens that have not been greatly altered, but with the majority of gardens the layout and plants have been modified from the original plan. A careful inspection will have to be made if the right decision is to be made on what to reconstruct.

Firstly plans and sections are produced followed by a survey which identifies plants, walls, changes of level, stumps of trees and any other information that is considered necessary, for example, physical problems such as drainage and structural stability of garden walls.

Having carried out the investigation, a proper understanding 7 1

of the garden and its relationship to the house can be gained. Types of questions to be answered are:

•What original parts have been removed or altered? •Was the garden established all in one stage? •What original elements need to be repaired or redone? •What physical and documentary evidence is there to carry out the work?

This type of investigation will provide most answers. In the case of the replacement of plant material and the absence of any photographic evidence an assessment will have to made and a plant substituted for the space, based on the evidence.

What to Restore Decisions can now be made about what will be left, what will be restored, and what will be renovated.

It has been said that gardening is not an object but a process. Gardens continue to exist as a result of human intervention in the interpretation of the existing character and style. When assessing the elements the original concept of the garden has to retained with an understanding of the garden process.

Planting The current health of the plant material is critical to the gardens overall condition. This is particularly so in the case of the distinctive plants of the Spanish Mission garden, notably the palms and cypresses. Many of the cypresses in particular are reaching a maturity where their replacement may be required. A forward planting program should be undertaken in gardens where a number of the distinctive trees and palms are mature so that the character of the garden is not modified through a loss of the principal planting elements. 72

Walls Garden walls and rockeries in many cases have not had the ongoing maintenance lavished on them that the houses have recieved. Many of the garden walls in Spanish Mission gardens were carefully constructed but over time, weathering, trees roots and weeds have disturbed the facing and foundations of the walls. The walling, where broken, requires reinstatement and refurbishment if possible. Sandstone and other type of rocks used, can be copied to create the existing form.

Other Elements The wrought iron work is subject to rust. Much of the iron work observed is in good condition and a regular maintenance program in the colours of black, ultramarine( to match the trim on the house) is required. Where iron work has corroded and is past repair, new ironwork has to be fashioned from the original design.

Conclusion The plant materials of the Spanish Mission gardens are the most sensitive to change and the most distinctive elements of the gardens. A proper assessment as outlined in this section is critical to the integrity of the gardens. 73

FOWLS

APPLE I VEGETABLE GARDEN

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Fig 30 Layout of typical garden NTS Size of land 57 x 25 Metres ( The Garden Lover September 1929) Schedule of plants for a typical house of 1929 From The Garden Lover September 1929 Titled 'An informal garden'. Trees 1 Cvpressus sp. 2 Eugenia pendula 3 Ginkgo biloba 4 Picea pugens var. glauca

5 hrubs 5 Crataegus oxvacantha 6 Eriostemon sp. 7 Erica bowiana 8 Eugenia myrtifolia 9 Laburnum sp. 10 Melaleuca hvpercifolia 11 Metrosiderous tomentosa 12 Rhapiolepsis indica 13 Virgilia sp. 14 Westringia fruiticosa

Fruit Trees Almond Apple Lemon Plum

Annuals/Perennials including Aster, Aquilia, Delphiniums, Gvpsophila helenium. Heuchera sp, Iris fimbriata. Iris germanica. Lupins, Penstemon, Pvrethrum sp.Salvia ulignosa. Silene fortunii nk ■mis SECTIO SUBDIVI NO LONGER INEXISTEN RECONSTRU mROUGH RECORDS-

Fig 31 Plan of Vino del Mar 1988 NTS Major plants shown Size of land 68 x 19 Metres 7 6

Schedule of plants Spanish Mission Garden Mosman NSW 'Vino del Mar'

Trees 1 Angophora costata 2 Brachvchiton acerifolius 3 Cvpressus sempervirens var stricta 4 Eucalyptus robusta 5 Jacaranda mimosifolia 6 Stenocarpus reticulatis

Shrubs 7 Azalea kurume 8 Azalea indica 9 Camellia japonica 10 Ceratopetalum gumminiferum 11 Cotoneaster lactea 12 Cvathea cooperii 13 Pittosperum undulatum 14 Strelizia regina 15 Tibochina grandulosa

Groundcovers 16 Agapanthus orientalis 17 Blechnum sp. 18 Impatiens sp. 19 Todea barhara 20 Bouganvillea 'Scarlet O'Hara ' 21 Rosa sp. 77

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Fig 32 Section through Vino del Mar NTS Numbers refer to plants on list for Fig 31 7 8

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Apperely R. E. Svdnev Houses 1914 - 1939

M Arch Thesis UNSW 1972

Australian Home Beautiful and Australian Home Builder

Melbourne 1923 - 1936

Barrett M. (Ed) The Edna Walling Book of Australian Garden

Design

Anne O'Donovan Pty Ltd 1980

Brown J. Gardens of a Golden Afternoon

A Storey of a partnership

Allen Lane 1982

Kelly M. (Ed) Sydney A City of Suburbs

UNSW Press 1987

Martineau P.Gardening in Sunnv Lands

Richard Coben Sanderson 1924

Seriopan N. California Bungalow

Unpublished thesis UNSW 1987

Weitze K. J. California's Mission Revival

Hennessey and Ingalls Los Angeles 1984