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Elphin is a heritage-listed villa at 24 Anzac Avenue, Newtown, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1907 to 1907. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2000. == History == Elphin on tree lined Anzac Avenue, Toowoomba, is large low-set single storey residence designed by prolific Toowoomba architect William Hodgen for Longreach pastoralist Andrew Crombie and his wife Ellen in 1907.〔 William Hodgen established his Toowoomba practice with an advertisement in the Darling Downs Gazette of 6 February 1897 announcing he was a new architect for Toowoomba. Growth and development in both Toowoomba and the Downs and his own efficient work meant he soon had a busy and successful practice. While trained in Queensland, his London experiences and knowledge of the Arts and Crafts and Edwardian Classicism were expressed in some of his buildings. However, he tended to employ a Free style, modifying the prevailing Queensland vernacular by introducing individualist elements. His English experiences are reflected in the classicist detailing of entrance pediments using timber, joinery and internal fittings. His Toowoomba works include Kensington, Tor, Austral Hall, Glennie School (Ascot House) and Flour mill. He was also responsible for buildings in Brisbane and other parts of the state such as the Allora grandstand, Oakey Post Office, Jondaryn Queensland National Bank, Hotel Corones, Charleville. Hodgen designed an L-shaped house; the front core had a 9-foot 6 inches wide veranda on three sides. Either side of the 8-foot entrance hall was the main bedroom and drawing room. The drawing room and dining room shared a fireplace as did the master and second bedroom. Between the second and third bedrooms was a bay-windowed workroom, these rooms overlooked the side garden. Another bedroom, bathroom and boxroom were at the rear and opened off an internal central passageway. The 15-foot wide service wing stretching out behind the house contained the pantry, kitchen and laundry, extending of this was a storeroom and servant's room. The house cost £1,236/19/3.〔 Hodgen also designed stables at the rear of the property for Crombie's Drayton Road property that cost £133. This weatherboard building had corrugated iron roof and gables and included a main room, coach house, harness room, feed room, workshop and cow shed.〔 Both Andrew and Ellen Crombie were born in Tasmania, however, they started married life in New South Wales in October 1874, where he was managing a large property. In 1882 he and his partners purchased Strathdarr Station near Longreach. With his wife, governess, maid, two daughters and son, Crombie moved north to manage this new enterprise. While Longreach pastoral life was not easy with floods, droughts and bushfires he was very successful. Crombie in his book, After sixty years, or, Recollections of an Australian bushman, mentioned that he and CW Little of Coreena Station were the first to ship frozen sheep from Queensland to London on the owner's account. Crombie, in 1889, was a founder of the first graziers association of Queensland, the Pastoral Employer's Association of Queensland. Moreover, Crombie who was involved in the life of his locality also served on the local Aramac Divisional Board.〔 Andrew Crombie believed in preserving buildings from the past for future generations. In his book he reminisced that he was quite devastated when a pioneers' hut was needlessly destroyed by a property manager "who was utterly devoid of sentiment in connection with pioneers and their great achievements".〔 While Andrew Crombie retained his pastoral properties until the mid-1910s the family also had a town house in Toowoomba by the early 1900s. It was in 1907 that they acquired land on Drayton Road, Newtown, to build their own large home on over 3 acres of land. The house was named after Elphin near Launceston, where Ellen Crombie née Richardson was born in 1849. The Crombies were part of Toowoomba's society and the house was eminently suitable for entertaining and for Mrs Crombie to hold her regular "at homes".〔 It was during his retirement that Andrew Crombie wrote his reminiscences which were published in serial form under the title of "Pioneering days" in The Queenslander during 1924 and 1925. Subsequently, Watson Ferguson published his work in book form, as After sixty years, or, Recollections of an Australian bushman in 1927.〔 Bottle merchant and sports enthusiast Ernest James Busby became the owner/occupant in April 1937. He used the extensive back yard for his business. Facilities he developed included an office and bottle washing shed, while in the fenced off bottle yard were extensive racks for bottles and a boiler shed.〔 Elphin was converted into flats by 1952. When Busby died in 1953 he was living in James Street and his children did not sell this revenue producing property until 1988. Because Elphin was put up for auction, various articles were published in The Chronicle during January 1988. Most called it a "homestead" and stated that during World War II the house was home to US servicemen, had been divided into four flats and that it was in need of restoring.〔 According to The Chronicle of 16 January 1988 the house had 15 rooms, including four main bedrooms, two servants' bedrooms plus a guest room. Features included leadlight fanlights and windows, pressed metal ceilings and nine fireplaces.〔 The house was sold before auction to a local businessman and his wife who refurbished it as a family home. Elphin was selected to be on the 1993 Heritage Building Society calendar because the society's chairman claimed, in The Chronicle of 25 November 1992, that they only desired "those buildings which are examples of rich history of imaginative architecture for which Queensland is known".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elphin, Newtown」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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