A House in Casterton

Liana found this intriguing Modernist house in Casterton while she was turning the car around and I was taking yet more pictures of the spectacular Electra House. So, of course, we we went back for a better look.

For a start, it is a huge house on the fringe of a small rural Australian town, Casterton in western Victoria. Then it appears to be a Modernist, almost a brutal, house. Imagine how it would look painted white under a glorious blue sky.

This view shows the stepped concrete wall along the front garden, the flat roof, altough it may have a low-pitched roof behind the parapet, and large vertical fin bisecting the house behind the front door. Curiously that fin seems to hide the front door from people entering the property along the driveway.

I wonder what the mysteries would be uncovered in the history of the fine house.

Electra House, Casterton

I couldn't leave Casterton, a small town in rural western Victoria, without posting this outstanding building. It is a little way up Henty Street from the Town Hall but to me the lettering and the colours put it in a different league altogether.

I haven't been able to find out any details about the architect or when it was contructed however there is a reference to Electra House in The Argus newspaper from November 1938.

So I don't know how this building ended up in an historic Australian country town but it did and what a wonderful sight it makes.

former Casterton Town Hall

Casterton Town Hall was designed by A C Leith and construction was completed in 1937. Casterton is now part of Glenelg Shire with the main civic centre in Portland but for many years the building served as both Town Hall and as a cinema for the town.

It is at odds with most of the older buildings in the town that date from almost 100 years earlier but it does have some contemporaries such as Murrells Shoes, directly opposite, and Electra House a little bit further along Henty St.

It seems to me that there us a flagpole missing from the building above the main entrance but perhaps it was designed that way.

The foyer has series of Art Deco lights and some nice metalwork in the railings of the stairs to the upper floor.

Reference: Jaffas Down the Aisles - A survey of Cinemas in Country Victoria for Heritage Victoria, June 2008

Murrells Shoes, Casterton

This shoe shop in Casterton tells an interesting story of retail in a small western Victoria town. Casterton was founded in the 1840s as a crossing to the Glenelg River and many of the buildings in the main street date from the nineteenth century.

But in the 1930s, they built a new town hall in moderne style and Williams the Shoeman followed suit. According to the current owner, around 1940, the shoe company purchased half of a double fronted shop dating from the early 20th century and built this shop with a panel of glass bricks, just like the town hall across the road, above the verandah. At the time, they would have been the two most modern buildings in the street and Williams would no doubt have promoted his business as such.

Since 1996, the shop has been owned and run by Brian and Vicki Murrell who run the business under the name Murrells Shoes and from my conversation today, they are proud of their Art Deco shop and its place in Casterton.

References:
www.theage.com.au, Casterton article, 8 Feb 2004
Casterton website, Murrell's Shoe Store, featured trader