We spend a lot of time at the National Archives and State Library of Victoria researching the history of the houses we work on, but sometimes the information just stops and we can’t find anything more. When we were working on St Kilda Hill House, all we could find was a blurry photograph taken in the 1940s, during World War II, when the airforce took aerial images of St Kilda.The State Library of Victoria does hold information on many of the significant architect-designed homes of that time, but most of it is about the people who owned and commissioned them, not the buildings themselves. It’s very rare to find original blueprints.
We aren’t interested in rebuilding what was designed back then, but we are curious about their stories.We wanted to reinstate the verandah, but it had been totally stripped back in the 1960s. We searched for details about the ironwork profile to use as a starting point, but we were also ready to make our own. Then, one day on site, we were digging around the footings and uncovered a small piece of iron lace. It was as if it had been tucked it away in the hope that someone would find it in the future.When the neighbours realised that the external balcony was going to be reinstated, they were very excited. The community responded positively to the work and the project received a City of Port Phillip architecture award.
