An artists’ colony called “Stella Park” or “The Wold" existed in Main Road, Templestowe.
The property might have been on Porter Street, having been subdivided to become Read Street.
The property was called both “Stella Park” and “The Wold”.
It was home to artists Yvonne Cohen, Valerie Albiston (nee Cohen) and Guelda Pyke, and was also home to Polly Pyke.
They lived there from approximately 1952 to 1980.
The property was 20 acres in size.
It was a working orchard (peaches and apples), in the midst of which were 3 modernist houses. It was surrounded on two sides by working orchards.
The three modernist houses were designed by the architect Alistair Knox (1948-52).
The neighbouring property on one side was a religious order (perhaps a monastery).
Around 1980, the four ladies sold the property. It was then subdivided by a property developer.
“Stella Park” at Templestowe was mentioned in the newspapers around 1900 when the then owner died at the property (Stella Park it seems like was the name of the house/property rather than a municipal place name location).
An article on the artists who lived at the property seemed to indicate it had views across the river towards Eltham but not much more.
City of Manningham aerial mapping https://mapping.manningham.vic.gov.au have aerials back to 1956 but cannot identify the property.
Ken Smith, DTHS Archivist, remembers seeing a hand made sign, or name plate, at an entrance on the north side of Porter Street, Templestowe about a hundred meters east of the intersection of Church Road and Porter Street, Templestowe (Porter Street in those days was commonly known as Main Road). The entrance was at the end of a row of old cypress trees. Ken believes the property contained twenty acres and was part of crown allotment D of section 18 in the Parish of Bulleen and had been purchased in 1918 by Hilda Susanna Lavinia Mandy and title particulars of the property is Certificate of Title Volume 4112, folio 356.
On the west side of Stella Park was another 20 acre orchard owned by one James Hodgson.
Stella Park (sent request to mirror page content to recollections.family.history@gmail.com 6FEB2023 14FEB2023)
In 1948, four women proposed to build three timber houses on eight hectares in a Templestowe orchard: a joint house for Polly and Guelda Pyke and separate ones for Val and Yvonne Cohen (the Pyke-Cohen Houses). They had independent means, and this gave Knox his first chance to produce three sizeable houses. It was an idyllic scene, particularly as these would be almost the first houses that could be seen from the west, across the Yarra Valley, before any orchards had been subdivided.
Toorak bride in blue
A ballerina length frock of powder blue velvet, and a matching bead-hugging hat will we worn by Miss Beverley Taylor for her marriage to Mr Bryan Sloanes at the Presbyterian Church, Too-rak, this evening. The bride, who will wear a posy of flowers, on her wrist, is the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Norman W. Taylor, of "Stella Park," Temple-stowe, formerly of Innisfail, North Queensland. The bridegroom Is the only child of Mr and Mrs Soanes.of Lyn, Cheshire, England. Miss Dorothy Braund will attend the bride wearing a frock and tiny hat of chartreuse velvet. Mr Ronald Asprey will be best man. After the ceremony there will be a reception at "Stella. Park." where the couple will make their home till they leave for England next year.
1953 'Toorak bride in blue', The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), 29 May, p. 11. , viewed 06 Feb 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245165736
BENNETT: Friends of the Late ROBERT HENRY BENNETT are informed that his remains will be interred in the Melbourne General Cemetery. The funeral will leave Stella-park, Templestowe, to-morrow (Sunday, the 17th inst.), at 1 p.m. Friends can meet at the junction of the North- cote and Heidelberg roads, Clifton Hill, at 3.15 p.m. A. A. SLEIGHT, Undertaker.
PEACE AND BEAUTY IN THIS ORCHARD
Two sisters, disliking the city wanted somewhere peaceful and beautiful to live. They found their answer in an orchard. THEY are Miss Gueida Fyke and Miss Mollie Pyke, who bought, an orchard In Templestowe with two other friends, and engaged a share-farmer to run It. But, like many other people at this time of the year, they are seasonal workers; fruit picking to their orchard. When the seasonal work is over, Guelda; a contemporary painter, finds much to offer in subjects from the surrounding hill and dale vista from the full-length studio windows of their modern home, re cently completed at "Stella Park" "STELLA PARK" has peaches, apples and quinces. Last year while their house was bring built, the sister went out from their Toorak flat, set up a roadside stall beneath gay beach umbrellas, and sold the products from the estate. They loved it, found the people who came to buy friendly and interesting, and say they wouldn't have missed the experience for anything. THE three new houses - all weatherboard - on the orchard, were design ed by the same architect, so that they blend perfectly into the landscape. The Pykes' house is painted celadon green, with white trim. The sisters have brought the coloring or the outside scene to the interior of their home. The deep blue some times seen in the distant Christmas Hills has been chosen for the celling and walls above the big open, stone-faced fireplace. In the large living room and behind the long, low natural wood built-in cupboard of its dining nook. The pink of the peaches, and the earth is repeated in the three Indian rugs on the polished floor. The room's other walls are a soft, lighter blue-green blending, with outside foliage. Painted hesslan over Caneite gives a wonderful matt texture and tone to the walls. The hall leading to the hedrooms, bath room and studio is primula pink — with an aqua carpet. When the doors of these rooms are open flashes of a red and white striped wall are seen in one bedroom, and putty pink and white Regency stripes-and lime hangings ran be seen in another. BUILT-IN cupboards are plentiful. Insldes are painted with contrasting shades; One cupboard in the studio is fitted with a wash basin and running water. The huge fireplace of the studio has a built-in barbecue. Although the house design is modern, several lovely old pieces of furniture such as, a mahogany rocking chair, have been placed suitably In various rooms. THE bathroom is small, so one shade of blue only has been used. The kitchen has grey-green walls and cupboards, pinky-red celling, yellow lino arranged In squares on the floor and pale yellow muslin curtains. Dorothy Glasscock.
BENNETT.—On the 9th November, at Stella-park, Templestowe, Isabel Jane, relict of the late Thomas Bennett, engineer, of Port Melbourne, aged 56 years.
On Tuesday, January 21, the above firm will conduct a sale at Stella park,Templestowe, where they will sell on behalf of Mrs. J. Lowe, her surplus furniture, &c.
Houses and Land to Let - AT Templestowe: Stella Park.- 7-roomed Villa, 20 lovely home. Morton & Coghlll, 80 Swanston-st.
Alistair Knox in Templestowe
...... One day in 1948 I was approached by an executive of the Art Gallery of Victoria on behalf of four ladies who proposed to build three houses on a twenty-acre peach and apple orchard in Templestowe - a joint house for Polly and Guelda Pyke, and separate ones for Val and Yvonne Cohen. They were all unmarried at this stage, although Val was anticipating marriage in the near future and her mother proposed to live with Val's sister Yvonne in the second house. As the Pykes' was a joint building, the two women decided to occupy separate sections of the building, especially as Guelda required a private area for her work as a practising artist. They had independent means, and this gave me my first opportunity to produce three sizeable houses amid the pink and white plum blossoms that covered the northern slope and looked over the river towards Eltham. It was an idyllic scene, particularly as these would be almost the first houses that could be seen from that direction. This was before any orchards had been subdivided, and the unbroken pattern of fruit trees separated by lines of ancient pines had remained unaltered since the land was first settled by a largely German community a hundred years earlier......
There was a simple plan of subdivision to finalise at Templestowe, and the Le Gallienne weekender to complete at Eltham. The struggle for materials remained as complicated as ever, but I now had a light truck which prevented the lack of a bridge across the Yarra between Templestowe and Eltham from making the Pyke-Cohen project impossible.....
Pyke house, Templestowe. Photo by Kate Gollins on www.alistair.knox.org ch34. G & M Pyke 135/1, Client: Pyke, Pyke house Templestowe 3106 VIC. Designed by Alistair Knox plan dated July 1951 job number 135
The Doncaster Shire was at that time housed in a brick store building on Council Street. When I arrived there with my plans, I found the internal space was nearly completely occupied by cases of documents and files. No one appeared to inquire what I wanted. It was only by dint of my shouting out that voices could be discerned issuing from an office partitioned off from the main storage area of the building. I found the Shire engineer sitting alone in his cubicle; after I had stated my business and left the plans, he told me his name was Rocksteen and that the only other person the Shire employed was a Mr Opie, the health inspector, whom I knew because he had recently been in the employ of the Eltham Shire.
My application must have been almost the first that was to start changing the district from a rural backwater into the most expensive residential area in the most residential city in the world. The German settlers had methodically surrounded every orchard with rows of pine trees and built their Lutheran Church in Church Street to keep 'the even tenor of their ways' for nearly a century without even a jot or tittle out of place - only to watch cataclysmic development, including multi-storey Shoppingtowns, dominating the three or four shops and the stone schoolhouse in the Doncaster village. I recollect one day, after we had started work, finding myself without transport and catching the train to Heidelberg, trying to hitchhike to Templestowe, and then walking the whole five miles without being passed by a single car. The increased labour force exacerbated the difficulty of Horrie's inability to trust anyone with proper work, so he had his two initial labourers - Lucky Cash and Vern Rich, by name - stack timber and keep up the appearance of usefulness while he himself set off like a madman trying to do three days' work in one.
G & M Pyke 135/1, Client: Pyke, Pyke house Templestowe 3106 VIC. Designed by Alistair Knox plan dated July 1951 job number 135
G & M Pyke 135/1, Client: Pyke, Pyke house Templestowe 3106 VIC. Designed by Alistair Knox plan dated July 1951 job number 135
G & M Pyke 135/1, Client: Pyke, Pyke house Templestowe 3106 VIC. Designed by Alistair Knox plan dated July 1951 job number 135
Source: A Middle Class Man: An Autobiography Chapter 34: Giving up the bank by Alistair Knox. Mirrored from
https://alistairknox.org/chapters/34 with permission of Tony Knox 6Feb2023
No comments:
Post a Comment