Below is an excerpt from Andrew C Ward & Associates, City of Box Hill Heritage and Conservation Study 1990 in regard to this historically significant house.
History
In 1889 Captain Louis Shepherd built a brick house on Lots 13 to 20 Section 388, which comprised 55 acres of land on the south side of Edyvean Street between Broughton Road and Drewett Street. At this time the property faced south, towards the street that Captain Shepherd named after himself. He lived in the house until 1894, when it was taken over by Fitzgerald Snowball, an accountant. When Snowball left the house in 1897, the land south of the house, fronting Shepherd Street, was subdivided. The rear of the house, which faced north, thus became the street front to Edyvean Street.
Between 1898 and 1920 John Howell, a customs officer, owned the property which he named Glenthorne. During this time, Howell further subdivided the land, and he was responsible for laying out Howell Street. Glenthorne was taken over by Samuel Linton, and it remained in his family until 1972. The house then became a nursing home known as Linton House. It has since returned to being a private residence.
Description
Glenthorne is a substantial single-storey late Victorian villa. Its walls are of tuckpointed brown bricks with red and cream brick string courses and window dressings. The buildings has multiple shallow-pitched gables to all elevations, with the roof being clad in terracotta tiles, penetrated by red brick corbelled chimneys with terracotta chimney pots. The current street elevation, originally the rear of the house, has a central conservatory with roof lantern. The original front of the house has a wide encircling cast iron verandah with convex corrugated galvanised steel roof.
Parts of the front (originally the rear) of the house appear to be added in the early 1900s. The house appears to undergone some recent restoration and reconstruction.
Comparative Examples
House, 14 Balmoral Street, Surrey Hills
Yooralla, 3 Beatty Street, Surrey Hills
Dulce Domum, 39 Blackburn Road, Blackburn
Significance
Glenthorne is of aesthetic significance. It is a good example of a large late nineteenth-century house. Its construction preceded the subdivision of the land surrounding it, which eventually resulted in its unusual street orientation. Stylistically, the house combines elements typical of the Victorian and Edwardian periods in an interesting composition.
The wording of this planning application (WH/2022/800) only states ‘Heritage Overlay’. I hope that any work that is carried out on this historically significant house takes into account that it is covered by a Heritage Overlay (HO33).
