The Rasmussen House built by Fred Schuhkraft (1886)
The Rasmussen house stands on the south side of Serpells Road, near Williamsons Road. It is a colourful brick house with a surrounding verandah and slate roof. It was built by Fred Schuhkraft in 1886.Fred Schuhkraft was born in King Street in 1861. His father, Gottfried, had come from Mutenberg, and, on arriving in Victoria went to Camberwell where he married Maria Fankhauser. They later moved to Waldau. The Fankhausers came from the Austrian Tyrol. Being Protestants, they had been subjected to a great deal of pressure by the Austrians, who demanded that they should either join the Church of Rome or be banished. As a result, four hundred had to leave their native land. Maria was among a group of these who sailed for Australia in l849.
In 1885, Fred Schuhkraft married Mesina, the eldest daughter of Reinhold Dehnert after whom Dehnert Street is named.
When Serpells Road was built, it cut across the land at an angle leaving several odd-shaped blocks. Fred Schuhkraft purchased one of these and built a brick house. The six roomed brick portion of the house cost £289. At that time, bricks cost £1 per thousand but loads were generous and often one thousand five hundred were supplied for the pound. Fred ran out of money so the house was not finished. There was no verandah and a shed at the rear had to be used as a kitchen.
In 1908, the Schuhkrafts moved to Croydon and the house was sold. A few years later the Rasmussen family purchased the property for £1,000.
Rasmussen's father, Niels, was born at Karebek near Copenhagen, Denmark. Niels became a sailor and on his third trip around the world decided that he had been at sea long enough. He left the ship at Melbourne in 1884 and came to Doncaster.
He was experienced in farming as he had grown up on a farm in Denmark. Niels worked for some of the orchardists including the Finger and Thiele families. One of the jobs he had was to cart bricks for the Fred Schuhkraft house, which was to become the home of his future son.
Niels married Emily Jane Hunter, who was the step-daughter of Patrick D'Arcy of Doncaster Road. The newly married couple rented an orchard in King street, but after two bad seasons were not able to pay the rent. All their possessions were forfeited and sold by the owner.
Niels started again in Church Road near Ruffeys Creek. They slept on bags stuffed with straw and used fruit cases as furniture. He went out working, taking any job that was offering and by 1903 was able to buy his own orchard. Seven years later he enlarged the orchard by renting the Schuhkraft property from Mr. Nottage a draper of Smith street, Collingwood. For several years, the house was let for a rent of five shillings a week, one of the tenants being Mr. Searby, head teacher of the Templestowe School.
In 1922, Charles Rasmussen married Alfrieda married Alfrieda, the eldest daughter of Henry and Auguste Emma Aumann of Warrandyte. They set up home in the house. The following year a verandah with horizontal motif timber decoration was built around the front and sides. At the rear, a kitchen, bathroom and enclosed verandah was added to complete the building.
Fred Schuhkraft had built a six-roomed house with a hall right down the centre. The hall is one of the few examples of Gothic architecture in a domestic interior. The Schuhkrafts had avoided the popular use of an Italianate arch to separate the front and rear sections of the hall, instead they planned a long passage with a row of Gothic arches. Only two arches were finished. The third was bricked-in to make the rear wall. If their original plans had been completed it would have been a magnificant hall.
The interior is rich with deep cornices and skirting boards, decorative ceiling roses and porcelain door knobs, finger plates and keyhole covers. The fireplace end of the dining room was quite magnificent. The fireplace had a dark timbered surround with a mirror panel on either side. Above the fireplace between two shelves as another mirror. Flowers were painted at the sides with a white swan swimming near some rushes and the other side had pink and blue butterflies. These were painted by Flora the eldest, daughter who had learnt to paint from Mr. Laurie Smith. Mr. Smith lived in the brick house in Elgar Road near the corner of Doncaster Road. He used to travel around the district schools, teaching painting and drawing for one penny a lesson.
The flag pole that stood in front of his house is now at Schramm's Cottage. Alongside the fireplace were red cedar cupboards. At the top were glass door china cupboards and the lower cupboards had deep mouldings around the dears and drawers.
At the time the house was built, polychrome brickwork, initiated by Melbourneís leading architect Josepth Reid had become fashionable. The two-tone brick patterns used most effectively in Schuhkraft's home. The timber decoration, on the Rasmussen's verandah, is in keeping with the design of the brickwork making an attractive well-balanced building.
At the rear is a shed that was originally the Templestowe Presbyterian Free Church School, known as Fergusonís School. Later it became a common school and was closed when the Templestowe School was built. It was situated not far from where the bend is in Rasmussen Drive. The school, built in 1857, was fifteen feet by thirty feet. It had a shingle roof and the walls were covered with weatherboards with tall narrow windows.
A desk was built into the side and end walls, with form attached to the floor. The teacher's desk was attached to the wall alongside the fireplace with its own fixed stool. Niels Schuhkraft dismantled the school and rebuilt it behind the house as a packing shed. The hall at one end was left open for a wagon to be backed for loading.
The present owners have made additions to the house and renovated the interior. They are to be congratulated for the sympathetic way the work has been carried out and for the trouble they took to find matching materials.
1976 11 DTHS Newsletter
52-54 Serpells Road, Templestowe (173.35)
The house was built by Fred Schuhkraft in 1886 as a six-roomed house with a central hallway. The Schuhkrafts sold the property in 1908. In 1922 it was bought by Charles Rasmussen after his marriage to Alfrieda Aumann. Rasmussen's father, Neils, had carted bricks for the construction of the house, and had later rented the property as an orchard, leasing out the house.(8)It is a symmetrical double-fronted, hip-roofed, ltalianate house with polychromatic brickwork and a slate roof. A skillion verandah, with timber fretwork valance and brackets, extends around three sides. The cornice frieze has bracket pairs and panels.
The verandah, a kitchen and bathroom were added by Rasmussen in 1923.(9)
The circular drive around a central garden bed is appropriate to the period of the house. A large cypress hedge extends along the Serpells Road boundary behind a recent picket fence. There are substantial new additions to the rear.
The old Templestowe Common School No. 627, said to be prefabricated building, was relocated to this site and used as a shed, however it is not known if it still remains.(10) Architecturally, this building can be compared to (for example) site nos. 174.4; 173.15; 173.36; 174.18; 173.26.
Of local significance as a large Italianate farm house, rather more elaborate than other local examples, with interesting associations with orcharding families.
(8) Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, 10(2). Nov. 1976, pp. 4·7.
9) Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, 10(2). Nov. 1976, p. 5.
9) Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, 10(2). Nov. 1976, p. 5.
City of Doncaster and Templestowe Heritage Study 1991 Richard Peterson. http://www.manningham.vic.gov.au/file/26126/download
House 52-54 Serpells Road, Templestowe.
Friedrich (Fred) Conrad Schukraft, orchardist, was the first owner of the Italianate house with its polychromatic brick work and slate roof at 52-54 Serpells Road. It was built for him by in 1885 (589) by his brother, George.(590) The site was owned in 1881 by their father, Godfried Friedrich Schukraft. Before that it was part of an allotment in the Carlton Estate purchased in 1863 by John Blair Ferguson.(591)Fred (1861-1931) moved into his new house (now kown as 52-54 Serpells Road) after his marriage on 6 August 1885 to Minna Christiana Dehnert (1864-1948) in the Waldau Lutheran Church at Doncaster. Mina's mother was a member of the Aumann family of successful district orchardists. A daughter, Flora Alvin, was bom in 1886, the first of six children bom while the Schukrafts lived in Templestowe. A son, Herbert, was bom in 1888 and christened in the Doncaster Lutheran Church where his parents had been married.(592)
In the same year, 1888, Fred became the registered owner of the Serpells Road property after the payment of 330 pounds to his father.(593) . The family lived on the property until 1905, when they moved to another orchard property on the corner of Yarra and Whitehorse Roads, Croydon. Here they lived for some years, helping to establish the Croydon Presbyterian Church in 1907.
The family later moved to Sandringham, apart for two years in South Africa. Fred died at Sandringham in December 1931, and was buried in the Old Cheltenham Cemetery. Minna, who died on 11 June 1948, was buried in the same cemetery.(594)
Templestowe Riding rate records confirmed that another orcharding family, the Rasmussens, was associated with the former Schukraft home in Serpells Road at least from 1910.(595) . By 1919, Neils Rasmussen was working the Serpells Road orchard still but leasing the house.(596) Later, in 1922, the property was transferred to Neils' son, Charles Henry William Rasmussen. Born in 1891, Charles moved into the house after his marriage in November 1922 to Alfriede Emma Aumann (a relative of the first owners) in the Doncaster Lutheran Church. Charles was reputedly "a good orchardist and was assisted by his wife." They had one child, a daughter, Mavis Annie.
After Charles and Friede Rasmussen sold their Serpells Road house and orchard property, they moved to Dimboola. Friede died in 1970 and Charles in 1980. Both are buried in the Dimboola Cemetery.(597)
Additions, including the verandah and a kitchen and bathroom at the rear, are said to have been made by Rasmussen in 1923.(598) No confirmation has been found for this in rate records. There is no increase in valuation at this time. However, an MMBW drainage plan dated 3 December 1973 shows a verandah and "proposed kitchen and bathroom" at the rear. The owner at this time was D. Hadaway.(599) Whether this was a replacement of earlier additions, or further additions is unclear but could probably be determined by an expert examination of the fabric. There is no indication on this plan of the prefabricated school building, said to have been relocated onto this site and used as a shed.
A recently published Aumann family history confirms that the home built "on a primed position in the Serpells Road" for Fred Schukraft "still stands with the original portion intact with a verandah and added rooms." A recent photograph in this publication shows the home with a "new wing" at "the back on the right."(600)
Of local historical significance as a large Italianate farm house associated from the 1880s with the Schukraft and then the Rasmussen orcharding families.
(589) Shire of Bulleen RB 1885 Templestowe Riding No.88.
(590) Uebergang, p.372.(591) RGO Search 28089 (G.F.Schukraft).
(592) Uebergang, pp.371-372.
(593) RGO Search 28089.
(594) Uebergang, pp.372-373.
(595) Shire of Templestowe RB 1910-11 Templestowe Riding No.159.
(596) Shire of Doncaster RB 1919-20 Templestowe Riding Nos. 424,449.
(597) Uebergang, p.314 (Marriage photograph and photo with daughter, Mavis).
(598) Context Pty Ltd., p.76.
(599) MMBW Drainage and Sewerage Plan No.525767 (52 Serpells Road).
(600) Uebergang, pp.314-375 (photograph of the house).
Doncaster & Templestowe Heritage Study Additional Historical Research. p89
House 52-54 Serpells Road, Templestowe.
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| 52-54 Serpells Rd (Jan2015 Googlestreetview) |
House 52-54 Serpells Road, Templestowe
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| 52-54 Serpells Rd (1990 VHD) |
"Rasmussen House"(Circa 1886)
52-54 Serpells Road, Templestowe, VIC 3106
4 beds 3 baths 3 cars 4,406 sqm
A Step Back In Time… A Step Up In Class With a history that stretches back to a time when this country was still viewed as a convict outpost by those on the far side of the globe, “Rasmussen House” has stood the test of time with remarkable aplomb, setting a standard for refined elegance in the eastern suburbs that few have matched since. Stepping from the encircling verandah to a central hallway featuring gothic arches that are a rarity inn themselves, even in homes of this era, you find a rare blend of 19th century personality and 21st century convenience, including: • 4 Bedrooms & a study, including full ensuite to main; • Elegant formal living and dining rooms; • Impressive informal living, and separate games room; • Quality kitchen featuring granite benches; • Exquisite ceiling roses and cornices, 4 original fireplaces; • Remote control garaging for 3 cars via remote control gates; • Fully integrated security system, and much more. Hidden from prying eyes behind a magnificent hedge, on one of the finest hilltop acres on the Golden Mile, this remarkable estate is completed by a private heated pool and spa, a synthetic grass tennis court, and superb landscaped gardens that include the croquet lawn and reflection pool. Where better to write the next page in your own family history?
https://www.realestateview.com.au/real-estate/52-54-serpells-road-templestowe-vic/property-details-sold-residential-814971/
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