View allAll Photos Tagged Redbricks
I really like this new building on Rhode Island Avenue, but the windows are a bit too big in the turret.
There was a little alley in San Francisco back of the Southern
Pacific station at Third and Townsend in redbrick of drowsy lazy
afternoons with everybody at work in offices in the air you feel
the impending rush of their commuter frenzy as soon they’ll be
charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings on foot
and in buses and all well-dressed thru workingman Frisco of
Walkup ?? truck drivers and even the poor grime-bemarked Third
Street of lost bums even Negros so hopeless and long left East
and meanings of responsibility and try that now all they do is
stand there spitting in the broken glass sometimes fifty in one
afternoon against one wall at Third and Howard and here’s all
these Millbrae and San Carlos neat-necktied producers and
commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San
Francisco Chronicles and green Call-Bulletins not even enough
time to be disdainful, they’ve got to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all
the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the
railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above
the following hotshot freight trains--it’s all in California, it’s all a
sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my
jeans with head on handkerchief on brakeman’s lantern or (if not
working) on book, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and
feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and I* have
insane conversations with Negroes in second*-story windows
above and everything is pouring in, the switching moves of
boxcars in that little alley which is so much like the alleys of
Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine
calling our mountains.
Jack Kerouac-October in the Railroad Earth
On 12 Februrary 1974, a friend and I visited the Bay Area for a first ride on BART as well as a trip on the SP commutes. We were planning to go over Christmas break, taking the Coast Starlight from Davis to Richmond, riding BART, then going to the SP's 3rd and Townsend Street station to catch a commute, pulled by an H-24-66, to San Jose and the Starlight back to Davis and home.
This was the very end of 3rd and Townsend, the station SP had built for the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition as a temporary structure that somehow held on for almost 60 years, through wars and streamlined Daylights and Larks and dieselization and Amtrak ending long distance passenger service into SF, and now, here it was, with a couple of SDP45s supplementing the F-Ms and Geeps that had been the commute power since the day I was born when diesels took over the commutes from the last of SP's steam.
Within a year or so, the F-Ms were gone and a new station was built south of 4th Street, which Caltrain still uses and is now over 40 years old itself, as old as 3rd and Townsend was when Kerouac and Neal Cassady were working for SP and they and their fellow Beats were having poetry readings in North Beach.
In 1974, there were flagmen who would block 4th Street to traffic when a train was due to leave or arrive at the station during the day. They would come out with their STOP signs from their little cabins and hold up cars for a few seconds until the train cleared, then go back to doing whatever they had been doing.
When rush hour approached and some of the trains extended beyond 4th Street, they would extend a chain across 4th Street and open up 5th Street a block south and flag that for the evening commute parade. 130, the first train that Kerouac mentions in Railroad Earth left at 514 and ran non stop down to what we now call Silicon Valley, before making its stops. In 1974, it was one of the first trains to have an SDP45 and ran with 9 gallery cars, which extended over 4th Street, as did some of the other trains. SP dispatched trains at 3 minute intervals at the rush hour, and my 1958 Official Guide shows the same train numbers and times as prevailed at rush hour in 1974.
Today, Caltrain runs a different service, reflecting that many people are commuting south in the morning and north in the afternoon as Santa Clara County has turned from a bedroom community to an economic powerhouse. The whole neighborhood has changed with former SP yards and freight houses now apartments and condos, and the Giants' 3 Com Park a few blocks north. Streetcars again serve the station with Muni's E, N and T lines.
RH1 "Kestrel",
C501 DYM,
Iveco Daily,
Robin Hood bodywork.
On the 16th August 1986, a brand new network of bus services centred upon Orpington commenced. Utilising 21 and 25 seater midibuses.
The only remaining example of a Roundabout Iveco Daily is seen here in rural Cudham Lane beside a flint and redbrick wall to celebrate the 28th birthday of the start of the R routes. RH1 ran in service on route R1 and was one of 3 coach seated RH which was something of an added luxury. Often in later years RH1 could be seen on route R5.
RH1 is part of a small private collection of preserved buses associated with the Orpington area.
The Uspenski cathedral of Helsinki, which is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, is the largest Orthodox cathedral in western Europe. With its golden cumpolas and redbrick façade, the cathedral is one of the clearest symbol of the Russian impact on Finnish history.
The cathedral was designed by Russian architect Alexey Gornostaev and completed in 1868.
Source: Helsinki on foot brochure
“Bundalohn House” is a splendid late Victorian mansion built opposite the St Kilda Botanic Gardens on Tennyson Street in the Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda.
Designed by architectural firm Reed Henderson and Smart in Gothic Renaissance style for Mr. Henry Gyles Turner and his wife Helen, “Bundalohn House” was constructed between 1884 and 1887 as a permanent residence for the childless pair after Henry’s mother’s death. Henry had decided that the lifestyle and amusements that Melbourne had to offer were far superior to that offered in London, so he acquired land in what was then St Kilda’s most prestigious residential addresses. Constructed of red brick and originally with a slate roof, “Bundalohn House” was considered architecturally advanced at its time of construction, as it took the style of large houses and mansions that would be built in the 1890s. The use of red face brickwork, the design of the window glazing bar patterns, architraves and skirtings are all advanced. Key elements of the facade are the tower and the projecting hallway with its deep windows beneath the gable. The design is dominated by a central feature in the main body of the house by incorporating two long, tall lancet windows extending across the first and second floor levels. Below are two dwarf windows. Across the rest of the house, the windows are paired between the ground and upper storeys. There have been comparisons drawn between “Bundalohn House” and “Marymeade” built in 1887 by Hyndman and Bates for merchant Mr. Harold R. Carter in the Grace Park subdivision in Hawthorn. Hyndman and Bates did extensions to the back of “Bundalohn House” in 1888 and 1889. Although rather severe today, when “Bundalohn House” was built it featured an open balcony on the second floor to the right of the tower entrance, and a conservatory below. Both were painted in white. Sadly, these have been removed in subsequent years.
The principal rooms and front door of “Bundalohn House” all open off a large central vestibule, which contains a grand staircase and the showcase pair of beautiful stained glass windows containing birds and boughs of flowers. The vestibule is largely intact more than a century after its construction and still contains its original stencilled decoration, elaborate balustrades and beneath the gallery is an elaborate fireplace with a tapered chimney breast.
The name “Bundalohn” means “white man’s camp” in the language spoken by the Moorabbin tribe. The couple also owned a property by this name in Dandenong. After the widowed Henry died in 1920, with no children to whom to leave “Bundalohn House” to, the property was sold and sub-divided. The sub-division created Bundalohn Court, named after the house. The house itself was converted into five flats. The new owner, William Darbyshire, also lived in one of the flats. This meant the division of some of the grander rooms, the removal of original features and the introduction of cooking and bathing facilities. The property was further added to over the years during a period when St. Kilda became a seedy mecca for rooming houses, of which “Bundalohn House” was one.
For many years, barely any of “Bundalohn House” could be seen from the street after the City Gate Travel Flats were built on the former front garden and driveway in the 1960s, and for a very brief period the façade of the grand mansion could be seen from Tennyson Street, dominating the streetscape proudly as it must once have done when it overlooked the St Kilda Botanic Gardens from within its own landscaped gardens. I was fortunate enough to see and photograph it during that brief period. Sadly, it has since been hidden from the world again as a new construction of low-cost public housing and a refuge have been built on the former City Gate Travel Flats site.
Henry Gyles Turner was born in Kensington, England in 1831. In 1854, he left England, and travelled to Melbourne where he worked for the Bank of Australasia. His fiancée Helen Ramsay, also from London, followed him to Australia, and they were married at Prahran in 1855. In 1870, he became the general manager of Commercial Bank of Australia. In 1887, Henry and Helen bought land in Tennyson Street and built “Bundalohn House”. In his lifetime, Henry Turner also held the position of president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, trusteeship of the Melbourne Public Library, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the St Kilda Cemetery Trust. He also wrote a number of books. His wife Helen was involved with various charities, such as the St Kilda Benevolent Society. She died in May 1914. Henry died at his beloved “Bundalohn House” in November 1920 and was buried in the St. Kilda Cemetery alongside his wife.
Bates Smart is an architectural firm with studios in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1853 by Joseph Reed it is known as one of Australia's oldest architectural firms, and has been responsible for numerous landmark buildings including the Royal Exhibition Buildings, the Melbourne Town Hall, the Wesleyan Church in Lonsdale Street, St Paul’s Cathedral on Flinders Street, the Ormond College clock tower, St. Michael’s Church on Collins Street, the Sate Library of Victoria, Holy Trinity Church in Balaclava, the former Metropolitan Gas Company buildings on Flinders Street, Sacred heart Church in St Kilda, Melba Hall and Scots Church on Collins Street. When “Bundalohn House” was built, it was known as Reed Henderson and Smart. Joseph Reed established his firm on arrival in Melbourne in 1853 and immediately won important commissions such as the Public Library. In 1863 he joined with Frederick Barnes to become Reed and Barnes. In 1883 Barnes retired, and A. Henderson and F. Smart joined Joseph Reed as partners to create Reed, Henderson and Smart.
There was a little alley in San Francisco back of the Southern
Pacific station at Third and Townsend in redbrick of drowsy lazy
afternoons with everybody at work in offices in the air you feel
the impending rush of their commuter frenzy as soon they’ll be
charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings on foot
and in buses and all well-dressed thru workingman Frisco of
Walkup ?? truck drivers and even the poor grime-bemarked Third
Street of lost bums even Negros so hopeless and long left East
and meanings of responsibility and try that now all they do is
stand there spitting in the broken glass sometimes fifty in one
afternoon against one wall at Third and Howard and here’s all
these Millbrae and San Carlos neat-necktied producers and
commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San
Francisco Chronicles and green Call-Bulletins not even enough
time to be disdainful, they’ve got to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all
the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the
railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above
the following hotshot freight trains--it’s all in California, it’s all a
sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my
jeans with head on handkerchief on brakeman’s lantern or (if not
working) on book, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and
feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and I* have
insane conversations with Negroes in second*-story windows
above and everything is pouring in, the switching moves of
boxcars in that little alley which is so much like the alleys of
Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine
calling our mountains.
Jack Kerouac-October in the Railroad Earth
On 12 Februrary 1974, a friend and I visited the Bay Area for a first ride on BART as well as a trip on the SP commutes. We were planning to go over Christmas break, taking the Coast Starlight from Davis to Richmond, riding BART, then going to the SP's 3rd and Townsend Street station to catch a commute, pulled by an H-24-66, to San Jose and the Starlight back to Davis and home.
This was the very end of 3rd and Townsend, the station SP had built for the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition as a temporary structure that somehow held on for almost 60 years, through wars and streamlined Daylights and Larks and dieselization and Amtrak ending long distance passenger service into SF, and now, here it was, with a couple of SDP45s supplementing the F-Ms and Geeps that had been the commute power since the day I was born when diesels took over the commutes from the last of SP's steam.
Within a year or so, the F-Ms were gone and a new station was built south of 4th Street, which Caltrain still uses and is now over 40 years old itself, as old as 3rd and Townsend was when Kerouac and Neal Cassady were working for SP and they and their fellow Beats were having poetry readings in North Beach.
In 1974, there were flagmen who would block 4th Street to traffic when a train was due to leave or arrive at the station during the day. They would come out with their STOP signs from their little cabins and hold up cars for a few seconds until the train cleared, then go back to doing whatever they had been doing.
When rush hour approached and some of the trains extended beyond 4th Street, they would extend a chain across 4th Street and open up 5th Street a block south and flag that for the evening commute parade. 130, the first train that Kerouac mentions in Railroad Earth left at 514 and ran non stop down to what we now call Silicon Valley, before making its stops. In 1974, it was one of the first trains to have an SDP45 and ran with 9 gallery cars, which extended over 4th Street, as did some of the other trains. SP dispatched trains at 3 minute intervals at the rush hour, and my 1958 Official Guide shows the same train numbers and times as prevailed at rush hour in 1974.
Today, Caltrain runs a different service, reflecting that many people are commuting south in the morning and north in the afternoon as Santa Clara County has turned from a bedroom community to an economic powerhouse. The whole neighborhood has changed with former SP yards and freight houses now apartments and condos, and the Giants' 3 Com Park a few blocks north. Streetcars again serve the station with Muni's E, N and T lines.
An aura of the Victorian past in Saltburn's terraced redbrick streets; only the amazing number of charity and second-hand clothing shops (and the car) tell you this is the 20teens (or whatever the decade is called).
Strong sun up there, hence lens flare.
In the 17th century, many of the houses were "Dutch Billys" [redbrick, gabled-fronted houses, familiar to anyone who has ever visited the Netherlands] but by the middle of the 19th century the street was full of small shops, including many family operated groceries shops as well as a number of dairies. Unfortunately by 1900 the street was effectively a slum as most houses had become multi-occupancy tenements.
By the middle of the 20th century Francis Street had become more commercial and industrial and acted as a base for many manufacturers of furniture, beds, cabinets, sheet metal products and shirts.
In the late 1990s the antiques trade began relocating to Francis Street from the city quays and up until recently the street had [maybe still has] the highest concentration of antique dealers in Ireland.
A major redevelopment of Francis Street is due to begin sometime this year [2019] with the appointment by Dublin city Council of a contractor to oversee detailed design and construction. The refurbishment includes replacing existing pavements with wider pavements in quality stone, creating new raised table areas to mark key landmarks along the street, adding new lighting and street furniture, and planting trees and landscaping the street.
The junctions at either end of Francis Street will also be improved, while the high quality paving will also extend down Hanover Lane.
In the 17th century, many of the houses were "Dutch Billys" [redbrick, gabled-fronted houses, familiar to anyone who has ever visited the Netherlands] but by the middle of the 19th century the street was full of small shops, including many family operated groceries shops as well as a number of dairies. Unfortunately by 1900 the street was effectively a slum as most houses had become multi-occupancy tenements.
By the middle of the 20th century Francis Street had become more commercial and industrial and acted as a base for many manufacturers of furniture, beds, cabinets, sheet metal products and shirts.
In the late 1990s the antiques trade began relocating to Francis Street from the city quays and up until recently the street had [maybe still has] the highest concentration of antique dealers in Ireland.
A major redevelopment of Francis Street is due to begin sometime this year [2019] with the appointment by Dublin city Council of a contractor to oversee detailed design and construction. The refurbishment includes replacing existing pavements with wider pavements in quality stone, creating new raised table areas to mark key landmarks along the street, adding new lighting and street furniture, and planting trees and landscaping the street.
The junctions at either end of Francis Street will also be improved, while the high quality paving will also extend down Hanover Lane.
There were once three mills on this site, but only the last two have survived. Lorne Street No.2 mill was erected in the late 19th century by Horrockses, Crewdson and Co, and was followed by the No.3 Mill in 1915. Both are listed Grade II and are now in multiple occupation.
Except for football, nothing defines Alabama like Summer. Hot, sweltering, humid, and oppressive. Kudos would echo out across the land to the day laborers that toil in the sum for a wage, if everyone else wasn't enclosed in their own air conditioned terrariums.
Marcus loved the summer. Loved it. He saw it as a time to see the world in a bright warm embrace. An invitation to the Florida beach, bar-b-que in the shade. Nothing could be better. But, today he had to get to a class. Sadie would already be there, and he had to make sure that he go the seat next to her.
The Noel Lothian Hall was opened in 2005 to accommodate botanical and horticultural exhibitions, displays, workshop and seminars.
The Hall is dedicated to Noel Lothian, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Adelaide from 1948 to 1980.
This Hall is part of the heritage listed Tram Barn A, the only remaining of 4 original tram barns built on this site in 1918 to service Adelaide’s extensive network of tram lines.
The Board of the MTT met for the first time on 4th February 1907.
Within two years, the first route of the electric tram system, to Kensington opened on 9th March 1909. By the end of 1909, electric trams were working the inner lines to North Adelaide, Walkerville, Payneham, Maylands, Marryatville, Parkside, Unley and Hyde Park - and at the same time, the MTT continued to operate the remaining horse trams routes, which it had taken over, retiring each horse tram service as the electric routes became operational.
Following the short lived appointment of J J Bodley, who had been manager of the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company (the largest of the horse tram companies) Mr W G T Goodman (later Sir William Goodman) then Chief Electrical Engineer was appointed General Manager, a position he held until his retirement in 1950 at age 78.
The Adelaide tramway system was designed, built and then managed for over 40 years by Sir William Goodman.
Born at Ramsgate, UK in 1872 he worked in Tasmania, New South Wales and as an electrical engineer for the Dunedin N Z Corporation before joining the Municipal Tramways Trust.
In the space of the first two years Mr Goodman and his staff had in place:
• 70 trams (of an initial order of 100) to start with.
• A very large car shed to put them in.
• A workshop to maintain them.
• A headquarters to run them from.
• A special phone system to know where they were.
• 10 miles of old horse tram tracks removed and replaced,
• Bridges strengthened.
• A 600v DC electrical distribution system.
• 55 miles of overhead wires.
• A power station planned and contract shipping to bring a steady supply of coal from NSW. (Until the power station was completed in 1910, power was supplied by the Adelaide Electric Supply Co to the MTT’s battery house and converter station at the corner of Pirie Street. and East Terrace.)
On opening day at 2.30pm, a procession of fourteen tramcars (carrying seven hundred passengers) led by tram No 1 left Hackney Depot travelling to Gurrs Road, Kensington. As the Premier, Mr T Price was very ill, Mrs Price officially drove the leading tram under Mr Goodman’s guidance. The procession returned to King William Street and then reversed direction to return to Hackney Depot for afternoon tea.
Refs: Heritage of the City of Adelaide: An Illustrated Guide 1996.
In the 17th century, many of the houses were "Dutch Billys" [redbrick, gabled-fronted houses, familiar to anyone who has ever visited the Netherlands] but by the middle of the 19th century the street was full of small shops, including many family operated groceries shops as well as a number of dairies. Unfortunately by 1900 the street was effectively a slum as most houses had become multi-occupancy tenements.
By the middle of the 20th century Francis Street had become more commercial and industrial and acted as a base for many manufacturers of furniture, beds, cabinets, sheet metal products and shirts.
In the late 1990s the antiques trade began relocating to Francis Street from the city quays and up until recently the street had [maybe still has] the highest concentration of antique dealers in Ireland.
A major redevelopment of Francis Street is due to begin sometime this year [2019] with the appointment by Dublin city Council of a contractor to oversee detailed design and construction. The refurbishment includes replacing existing pavements with wider pavements in quality stone, creating new raised table areas to mark key landmarks along the street, adding new lighting and street furniture, and planting trees and landscaping the street.
The junctions at either end of Francis Street will also be improved, while the high quality paving will also extend down Hanover Lane.
The Noel Lothian Hall was opened in 2005 to accommodate botanical and horticultural exhibitions, displays, workshop and seminars.
The Hall is dedicated to Noel Lothian, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Adelaide from 1948 to 1980.
This Hall is part of the heritage listed Tram Barn A, the only remaining of 4 original tram barns built on this site in 1918 to service Adelaide’s extensive network of tram lines.
The Board of the MTT met for the first time on 4th February 1907.
Within two years, the first route of the electric tram system, to Kensington opened on 9th March 1909. By the end of 1909, electric trams were working the inner lines to North Adelaide, Walkerville, Payneham, Maylands, Marryatville, Parkside, Unley and Hyde Park - and at the same time, the MTT continued to operate the remaining horse trams routes, which it had taken over, retiring each horse tram service as the electric routes became operational.
Following the short lived appointment of J J Bodley, who had been manager of the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company (the largest of the horse tram companies) Mr W G T Goodman (later Sir William Goodman) then Chief Electrical Engineer was appointed General Manager, a position he held until his retirement in 1950 at age 78.
The Adelaide tramway system was designed, built and then managed for over 40 years by Sir William Goodman.
Born at Ramsgate, UK in 1872 he worked in Tasmania, New South Wales and as an electrical engineer for the Dunedin N Z Corporation before joining the Municipal Tramways Trust.
In the space of the first two years Mr Goodman and his staff had in place:
• 70 trams (of an initial order of 100) to start with.
• A very large car shed to put them in.
• A workshop to maintain them.
• A headquarters to run them from.
• A special phone system to know where they were.
• 10 miles of old horse tram tracks removed and replaced,
• Bridges strengthened.
• A 600v DC electrical distribution system.
• 55 miles of overhead wires.
• A power station planned and contract shipping to bring a steady supply of coal from NSW. (Until the power station was completed in 1910, power was supplied by the Adelaide Electric Supply Co to the MTT’s battery house and converter station at the corner of Pirie Street. and East Terrace.)
On opening day at 2.30pm, a procession of fourteen tramcars (carrying seven hundred passengers) led by tram No 1 left Hackney Depot travelling to Gurrs Road, Kensington. As the Premier, Mr T Price was very ill, Mrs Price officially drove the leading tram under Mr Goodman’s guidance. The procession returned to King William Street and then reversed direction to return to Hackney Depot for afternoon tea.
Refs: Heritage of the City of Adelaide: An Illustrated Guide 1996.
This Arts and Crafts style complex of flats may be found in the Melbourne suburb of Elwood.
Built in Arts and Crafts style, the flats have a mixture of exposed red brick and stuccoed brick walls which was a typical element of the movement, as are the half timbered gables and the wooden fretwork up under the eaves. The patterns set into the brickwork, particularly those around the bulls-eye window are especially fine, and a tribute to the craftsman that created them.
After the Great War (1914 - 1918), higher costs of living and the "servant problem" made living in the grand mansions and villas built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras a far less practical and attractive option for both those looking for new housing, and those who lived in big houses. It was around this time, in answer to these problems, that flats and apartments began to replace some larger houses, and became fashionable to live in.
Flats like these would have suited those of comfortable means who could afford to live in Elwood, and dispense with the difficulties of keeping a large retinue of staff. With its simple style, it mirrored the prevailing uncluttered lines of architecture that came out of England after the war.
Wandering around the back lanes near our house there are many of these Victorian mews stables to be seen although most have now been converted into garages or workshops. Above, a rare two storey survivor.
As part of the restaurant's preparations for serving lunch, this waiter was changing the outdoor menu from that of the night before. Wasn't it nice that he lent me his profile, just as I was going by in a car?
I like all the layers here, from inside the car to inside the restaurant, beyond the gloriously warm light of the lamps, as well as the reflections.
(The light, bokeh-like dots were caused by tiny raindrops that had dried on the car window.)
Midtown West, Manhattan
New York, NY USA
-----
For the group six word story.
The Zollern Colliery
A castle of labour
At first sight palatial redbrick facades and artistically adorned gables on buildings dotted around a grassy square are more reminiscent of an aristocratic residence than a coal mine. This was exactly one of the ideas behind the architecture.
Today the “mansion of labour” in the west of Dortmund is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and impressive testimonies to Germany’s industrial history. The engine house with its famous Jugendstil (art nouveau) doorway is already an icon. But the museum’s outstanding industrial architecture is only one of many different attractive facets. The various sections of the exhibition will take you into a world of harsh working conditions, and the stories of the men and women who worked in coalmining during the 20th century will bring this vividly to life.
Built in 1907 for Doctor Richard Horace Gibbs, on the rise of a hill in the prominent location of the corner of Bromfield and Corangamite Streets in Colac, stands the grand two-storey red brick residence, “Glenora”.
“Glenora”, like its neighbor “Lislea House” on the opposite corner was built for use as a stylish residence and surgery, and “Glenora” has been constructed in the popular Federation Queen Anne style, which was mostly a residential style which was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in England, but also encompassed some of the more stylised elements of Art Nouveau, which gave it an more decorative look. By 1907 when “Glenora” was built, Federation Queen Anne was the prevailing style of fashionable architecture, and as a representation of Doctor Gibb’s success and prestige, the house could not have been built in any other style. Designed by successful local Camperdown architect Warburton Pierre (Perry) Knights (1872 – 1954) “Glenora” is a splendid example of this architectural movement. It has a very complex roofline, ornate stylized Art Nouveau wooden fretwork along both the upper and lower return verandah, half timbered gables, Art Nouveau mouldings around some of the windows and along the underside of some of the bay windows, and perhaps most striking of all, a beautiful rounded Art Nouveau entranceway to the surgery, complete with panels of ornate stylised stained glass.
Queen Anne style was most popular around the time of Federation. With complex roofline structures, ornamental towers of unusual proportions and undulating facades, many Queen Anne houses fell out of fashion at the beginning of the modern era, and were demolished.
Doctor Gibbs, like his neighbor Doctor Wynne, was a prominent and popular figure in the Colac community, and the two commenced a partnership in 1903. Born in Melbourne in 1863 to Richard Gibbs, the Registrar General and Registrar of Titles of Victoria, Doctor Gibbs studied at the University of Glasgow in Scotland between 1884 and 1885, where he took classes in Anatomy, Physiology, Botany, Zoology and Chemistry. He returned to Australia and commenced as a locum in Colac in 1889, however in 1892 he left Colac and set up practice in Warracknabeal where he met his wife Helen. He later purchased a practice in Sale, but only remained there until 1901 when he sold it and took his family back to Great Britain where he settled in Edinburgh where he studied all the latest medical and surgical teachings. Doctor Gibbs was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Returning to Australia, Doctor Gibbs once again set up practice, this time in Melbourne, but perhaps because his wife’s family came from Camperdown and Lismore, Doctor Gibbs moved his family back to the nearby town of Colac in 1903 when he took up his partnership with Doctor Wynne. Doctor Gibbs had “Glenora” built after the birth of his fifth child. When the First World War was declared in 1914, Doctor Gibbs’ two eldest sons, John and Richard, enrolled and Doctor Gibbs himself worked for the war effort at home by enlisting in the Patriotic Committee. Richard was awarded the Military Cross, but was lost to fighting in France and his body was never recovered. John was invalided in 1917 with tuberculosis and returned to his family home of “Glenora” where he was cared for by his father. Sadly John died within a month of returning home. Doctor Gibbs then decided to leave Colac and in 1918 moved to the fashionable seaside Melbourne suburb of Brighton, where he took up a post as a senior surgeon at the Australian General Hospital in nearby Caulfield where he worked with maimed and debilitated repatriated soldiers of the Great War. Sadly, Doctor Gibbs died in 1919 when he fell from the open back of a Melbourne tram. He was returned to his beloved Colac, where he was buried in the family plot alongside John, as was his wife when she died in 1959.
I would like to acknowledge the Colac & District Family History Group Inc. for all their help in providing me with details on the former owner of “Glenora”.
As the descendants of Doctor Gibbs no longer live in “Glenora”, the house today serves as professional suites for a number of solicitors firms.
Located approximately 150 kilometres to the south-west of Melbourne, past Geelong is the small Western District city of Colac. The area was originally settled by Europeans in 1837 by pastoralist Hugh Murray. A small community sprung up on the southern shore of a large lake amid the volcanic plains. The community was proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848, named after the lake upon which it perches. The post office opened in 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854 when the city changed its name. The township grew over the years, its wealth generated by the booming grazing industries of the large estates of the Western District and the dairy industry that accompanied it. Colac has a long high street shopping precinct, several churches, botanic gardens, a Masonic hall and a smattering of large properties within its boundaries, showing the conspicuous wealth of the city. Today Colac is still a commercial centre for the agricultural district that surrounds it with a population of around 10,000 people. Although not strictly a tourist town, Colac has many beautiful surviving historical buildings or interest, tree lined streets. Colac is known as “the Gateway to the Otways” (a reference to the Otway Ranges and surrounding forest area that is located just to the south of the town).