Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence
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Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence Heritage Citation Report Name Former State Savings Bank and Residence Address 30 Percy Street, Portland Place Type Commercial Citation Date 2 June 2016 Heritage listings None Recommended heritage protection Glenelg Shire Planning Scheme (PS) Heritage Overlay (HO) Figure 1 : Former State Savings Bank and Residence, facing east Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 1 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence Figure 2 : Proposed HO extent History and historical context The State Bank started out as the Savings Bank of Port Phillip, which opened in Melbourne in 1842. Charles Joseph La Trobe had recommended the Bank’s establishment and he was also on the first Board of Trustees (Museum Victoria 2016). By 1850 additional branches had opened in Geelong and Port Fairy. The Savings Bank of Port Phillip Laws Amendment Bill was introduced in 1852 to continue the Port Phillip Bank as the Savings Bank of Victoria. This bill was related to the separation of the colony of Victoria from New South Wales. A consideration of the bill by a committee resulted in each branch of the Savings Bank being required to operate separately under a Board of Commissioners. In 1853 the Act to Consolidate and Amend the Laws Relating to Savings Banks came into effect. A head office for the bank opened in 1858 in Melbourne and several regional banks opened between 1857 and 1865. The regional banks were opened under the auspices of the State Savings Bank of Victoria. In 1896 the Savings Bank Act 1481 came into effect in an attempt to amalgamate the separately operating banks. The Post Office Savings Bank merged with the State Savings Bank in 1897. There were no more mergers until 1991, when the State Savings Bank of Victoria merged with the Commonwealth Bank (Museum Victoria 2016) In Portland a branch of the Savings Bank of Port Phillip opened in Julia Street in 1848. This was the first branch of the bank to open after the main branch opened in Melbourne in 1842. Edward Henty, who arrived in Portland Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 2 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence in 1834, opened the bank. Henty was from a banking family in Sussex, England, and saw the need for a bank in response to Portland’s growing trading associations. During the first 12 months of operation there were only eight accounts held at the bank, but by 1853 there were 37 depositors. In 1860 a site for a new bank was offered by the government but was rejected due to its close proximity to the jail. Instead the bank was re-located to a weatherboard building in Percy Street where it stayed for 20 years. In 1880 a new building was erected opposite the weatherboard bank in Percy Street, by which time there were 611 depositors. Shortly after this, in 1893, there was a substantial financial crash across the country. However, the Portland State Savings Bank seems to have recovered from this with 1,172 depositors in 1897. This grew to 2,500 depositors shortly after the end of the First World War and then to 4,072 in 1948 (Portland Guardian, 5 January 1948). A newspaper article (Portland Guardian, 5 January 1948) reports that a new State Savings Bank building was built in 1941 to replace the 1880 building erected on the Percy Street site. However, the date on the façade of the building is 1940. Land titles indicate that the current allotment was purchased in 1880 by the Commissioners of Savings Banks in the Colony of Victoria. These records also indicate that the building may have continued to operate as a bank until 1978. The building was being used to house the Old State Bank Gallery around 2011 (Thompson 2011). Currently, the building is used as a residence at the rear and a commercial space in the front portion. In early regional banks throughout Australia, the bank manager commonly lived in a residence behind the commercial part of the building, the banking chambers. Historically, banks provided housing for rural managers (Department of Environment and Heritage Protection 2016). Given that the Former State Savings Bank has a residential section at the rear, it is likely this was the case in Portland. This practice, which was common for businesses such as banks and shops, was phased out in the post-World War Two era when people started using cars to commute to work (Context 2012). Relevant Historical Australian Themes 3 Developing Local, Regional and National Economies 3.18 Financing Australia 3.18.2 Banking and lending Description Physical description The Former State Savings Bank and Residence has a commercial section at the front and a residential section at the rear. The building has brick external and internal walls. Externally, the commercial section of the single storey building is red clinker brick on the lower section of the exterior walls with the upper section of the building stuccoed in a contrasting cream colour. The Interwar Period- style building has elements particular to the Moderne style, such as a small horizontal cantilevered hood over the double wooden door on the left of the façade, a strong horizontal banded design across the façade from the hood and extending across the front windows, the decorative and symmetrical upper façade with the stepped parapet concealing the roof, and a distinctive finial located in the centre of the building. The date of the building is located on a protruding panel in the centre of the façade. The residential two storey section at the rear of the building is built of red brick with a tiled hipped roof. There appears to be at least two chimneys in the building. The narrow and tall windows above the side entrance have two timber double-hung windows with ornately designed glass panels featuring stained glass. The inside of the building contains timber floorboards, sliding double timber and glass 12-panel doors (Figure 3), timber window frames, decorative ceiling cornices, original light fittings, timber picture rails, brick fireplaces with timber mantelpieces (Figure 4), wooden staircase (Figure 5) and original bank embossed double wooden and glass doors (Figure 6). Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 3 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence To the left of the building at the rear of the property is a smaller rectangular shaped red brick garage with a driveway leading from the road to the garage. The garage has a tiled hipped roof and a wide wood and glass panelled entranceway. There is a timber framed double-hung sash window on one of the garage walls. The front fence is built of the same bricks and upper decorative finish as the commercial section of the building. There is a decorative iron gate located to the left of the building which leads to the driveway to the garage. There is a more recent timber building located in the rear of the property which is of no significance. Figure 3 : Sliding timber and glass doors, fireplace in background Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 4 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence Figure 4 : Fireplace with timber mantelpiece in commercial section of the building Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 5 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence Figure 5 : Timber staircase Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 6 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence Figure 6 : Timber and glass doors with embossed bank details Physical condition Good Usage/Former usage Bank/Residential Art Gallery Recommended management Maintain generally as existing Place Name: The Former State Savings Bank Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 7 Heritage Citation Report – Former State Savings Bank and Residence Comparative analysis HO223 Commonwealth Bank, 374-76 High Street, Preston, Darebin City Council The two-storey rendered brick Moderne branch of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia building is characteristic in composition, stylistically, and in its use of materials, to suburban and country branches built by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia during the Interwar period. The west (High Street) elevation and north (Roseberry Street) elevation have a plain rendered brick parapet with a slightly projecting cornice. The walls below are rendered brick, with subtle horizontal bands, and sit upon a brick base. The west elevation is symmetrically composed with a central entrance, which has had its original door(s) removed. The symmetry of the lower level has been diminished by the insertion of an automatic teller machine in one of the windows that flanked this central entrance. The fenestration that remains on the ground floor of the west elevation is an original double-hung sash window with horizontal glazing bars. An unsympathetic cantilevered awning projects from the west elevation of the building above the ground floor. The upper level of the west elevation has at its centre a row of double-hung sash windows, slightly recessed and separated by brick pilasters, below a projecting hood. These windows have horizontal glazing bars, as do the double-hung sash windows that flank this central bay of windows. Above the hood is signage with the words 'Commonwealth Bank' and the institution’s emblem. The north elevation of the bank is relatively plain, with bays of double-hung sash windows at regular intervals. These windows retain their horizontal glazing bars.