Historical information

This black and white photograph shows the front view of the Ovens Benevolent Home with one person sitting on a bench seat against the nearest part of the building and another person walking on the grass.

This photo is estimated to have been taken in the early 1900’s when the Ovens Benevolent home would have still been fairly contemporary. According to Woods (p. 121) in the 1860’s the government spent considerable sums to establish several public buildings such as the Benevolent Asylum, the Hospital and Insane Asylum to support those in need of care in the area directly after the Indigo gold rush which had left Beechworth, a fairly remote regional and newly formed township (Gold was first discovered in Beechworth in 1852) with a number of infirm and destitute people in its wake and which due to the support and establishment of these facilities ‘made Beechworth a significant social welfare centre in Victoria’ (Woods, p. 121).

Originally named the Benevolent Asylum, the building was renamed as The Ovens Benevolent Asylum in 1935 and again to The Ovens and Murray Home in 1954. The building construction began in 1862 and was unique in its features of Flemish Gothic Revival style which utilised red brick and granite, ‘the main facade is dominated by four curved, Flemish gable ends, […] incorporates paired windows of pointed Gothic form and dark brick diaperwork patterning. The adjacent J. A. Wallace Wing of 1899 was designed by Donald Fiddes as a separate building. Also constructed of red brick, Fiddes adopted a conservative approach, designing a simple domestic scale building with central projecting gable porch and flanking bull nosed verandahs.’ (https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/118).

Initially established to provide housing and care for aged, orphaned or widowed members of the population, over time the Ovens Benevolent Home focused more on the age care responsibility which functioned as such up until 2005.

Significance

The Ovens Benevolent Home is significance due to its association with the early development of Beechworth. It shows the civic, social welfare development that took place in the town after the peak of the gold rush which helps to establish the character of the community being built at the time and their cultural values at play. This photograph also clearly shows the early functioning landscape of that building and its purpose as well as the significant elements of its aesthetic significance and unique and striking architectural forms of the building.

Physical description

Black and white rectangular photograph [copy from slide]

Inscriptions & markings

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References