Burke later Burns House, 340-342 Collins Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Burke later Burns House, 340-342 Collins Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 102136
Level of description:
Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Textual materialGraphic materials
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
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Period: Inter-WarConstruction date: 1930..ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?Nationally known estate agent, businessman and philanthropist, Thomas Burke (1870-1949) commissioned architects Schreiber & Jorgensen to design this seven storey (plus basement) reinforced concrete office building in 1929. The Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Company was the builder, with the estimated cost of the project being ₤25,000.Building application drawings showed another floor and pent house plus a proposed sub-basement but these were omitted from the final building contract. The ground level also had a stair descending to the basement with a marble balustrade and marble (and then timber) panelling to walls for most of its length but this too was omitted. The façade was clad with terra-cotta faience in highly fanciful Gothic design that was intricately detailed in the architects' drawings. The name Burke House was placed in a panel above the window display and entry, these having copper clad timber tracery and ogee-arch heads to provide a fully medieval character. Burke (and others) occupied the building in the inter-war period.After an intense early political career, Burke made his name in real estate when he bought land cheaply during the war years, subdivided it and sold it on easy terms after the war had ended during land and housing shortages.`His scale of operations made him one of Australia's best-known real estate agents. His advertising spread the 'new gospel' of '8d. a day' to secure a stake in an "expanding Australia".By 1924 Burke had diversified into finance and investment, and had set up offices in country centres as well as in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Adelaide. In August 1924 T. M. Burke Pty Ltd was incorporated as a holding company...' Among other well-known estates such as the Malvern Meadows Estate, Burke sold part of the Noosa resort area development in the late 1920s, amounting to hundreds of acres.As with his other ventures, Burke took advantage of the Great Depression to erected this building as his head office in times of cheap labour and materials costs, as with the Manchester Unity Building. He set up branches in Auckland, Singapore and London and retired from management in 1936.The building's architects, Schreiber & Jorgensen, were at their peek of achievement having just completed the magnificent Xavier College chapel design as well as a number of outstanding domestic commissions that illustrated their ability with both Arts & Crafts and classical oriented designs.The street elevation of Burke House is extravagantly modelled as commercial Gothic as applied to narrow frontage. The parapet is particularly ornate and massive in comparison with the relatively plain façade between it and the first floor balconettes and bartizans. Recently cleaned the façade still has the sandstone character of the faience veneer. The ground level has been integrated with Hardy Brothers next door and an unrelated canopy added.How is it significant?Burke House is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?Burke House is significant aesthetically as a well-preserved commercial Gothic style office building erected at the height of the Great Depression to the design of the then prominent architects Schreiber & Jorgensen and showcasing the historicism of the style and its realisation with the terracotta faience acting as a traditional stone cladding. Historically Burke House is closely linked with the nationally known estate agent, businessman and philanthropist, Thomas Burke whose skill in financial investment is epitomised by this building..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites:Keith & John R. Reid, 'Central Business District Study Area 7' (bounded by Lonsdale, Elizabeth, Flinders & William Streets), (Dec. 1976). (80): 281- Recommended to Historic Buildings Register after comparative analysis; TM Burke estate agents acquire Roach's tailor shop using it til 1924, occupied by AE Higgins to 1929, as Burke house included architects Blackett & Forster. 7 storey, Neo-Gothic but `courageous example of early modern style', contrast with Hardy's with adjoining streetscape..CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONSBuilding Permit Application 6/8/1929 11723 ₤27,000.ROYAL VICTORIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS JOURNAL (RVIAJ) 1930advertising image- see filehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1dna6jKHnHSYfoEc4enQptfDd8d3ZQYmH/view?usp=sharing.Alan Holgate. John Monash web sitehttp://home.vicnet.net.au/~aholgate/jm/jm_intro.html`Cannon's Factory.This was a "factory", about 80 × 57 feet in plan, in Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, for Messrs Cannon and Blunden. The architect was R. Schreiber. The external walls were load-bearing masonry and the first floor was of reinforced concrete, supported by 12 internal r.c. columns on spread footings. RCMCP sent quotes of £396-12-0 to a list of Builders provided by Schreiber. The general contract was won by J D McBride in May 1911 and RCMPC agreed to do the r.c. work for £350 "if given a clear run".J. E. Menadue, A Centenary History of the Australian Natives' Association 1871-1971 (Melb, 1971); K. S. C., Advance Australia, Mar 1969; A. W. Hannan, Victorian Catholics, State Aid and Religious Instruction in State Schools, 1901-39 (M.Ed. thesis, Monash University, 1973); T. M. Burke Pty Ltd records (Corporate Affairs Office, Melbourne); private information.`BURKE, THOMAS MICHAEL (1870-1949), businessman and philanthropist, was born on 30 June 1870 at Norval near Ararat, Victoria, second son of William Marcus Burke, Dublin-born miner, and his wife Mary Ann, née Florence, of Aberdeen, Scotland. After attending Norval State School and Ararat High School, Burke became a railway clerk at Spencer Street, Melbourne, in 1887. Five years later he was promoted to Ararat. There on 25 July 1898 at St Mary's Catholic Church, he married Margaret Duggan Brady, daughter of a railway inspector.Burke was an active member of the Australian Natives' Association, becoming president of the Ararat branch in the last years of the Federal movement. He was elected vice-president of the Victorian A.N.A. in 1900-01, and chief president in 1902-03, when he led delegations to Western Australia and Tasmania to found branches there.In March 1902 Burke became secretary of the Civil Service Co-operative Society of Victoria, and was a leader of railwaymen in their confrontation with the (Sir) William Irvine government over its wages and anti-union policies. Burke quit the railways just before the application of coercive legislation against strikers and their spokesmen, and in May 1903 he established the Civil Service Co-operative Store, Flinders Street, Melbourne, becoming manager. In 1904 he was secretary of the first 'Made-in-Australia' Exhibition and frequently spoke out in favour of protection and co-operatives. In September 1914 he stood as Labor Party candidate for the Federal seat of Corangamite but narrowly lost.Following large trading losses in mid-1914 the Co-operative Store was sold in 1915. Burke then turned to the real estate business. He bought land in the depressed market of the war years, subdivided it and sold it on nominal deposit and easy terms in the immediate post-war period. His scale of operations made him one of Australia's best-known real estate agents. His advertising spread the 'new gospel' of '8d. a day' to secure a stake in an 'expanding Australia'. By 1924 Burke had diversified into finance and investment, and had set up offices in country centres as well as in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Adelaide. In August 1924 T. M. Burke Pty Ltd was incorporated as a holding company with family shareholding.The Depression caused the temporary collapse of the land market. By the mid-1930s, however, Burke had reverted to more conventional sales and the company both survived and prospered. Branches were set up in Auckland, Singapore and London. In May 1936 he handed over day to day management to his sons while remaining chairman of directors.Burke was a member of all major Victorian racing-clubs, an owner from the 1920s of successful racehorses (including Quintus, who won the Newmarket and Standish handicaps), and president of the Breeders, Owners, and Trainers' Association of Victoria for several years. His philanthropic activities included financial support to the Melbourne University Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and a gift of land on the summit of Mount Dandenong for a public park. His membership of the Victorian Hospitals and Charities Board in 1931-49 included terms as chairman in 1936-39 and 1944-45. He was also a member of the Victorian Council of the Australian Red Cross. He was appointed consul for Poland in 1933 and kept this post for the rest of his life.Burke was an ardent Catholic benefactor and lay leader. In 1920 he bought Studley Hall, Kew, and gave it to the Jesuits as a preparatory school for Xavier College; it became known as Burke Hall. His large donations helped to establish Corpus Christi College, Werribee, and St Anthony's Foundling Home, Sydney; smaller gifts sustained many Catholic institutions and activities. He was first national chairman of the Knights of the Southern Cross and in 1926 presented a chalice to Pope Pius XI on behalf of Australian Catholic businessmen. He was on the committee for the National Eucharistic Congress held in Melbourne in December 1934. A member of the Australian Catholic Federation in its heyday, 1911-22, he lobbied in vain Prime Minister (Viscount) Bruce in 1928 to seek a national solution to state aid, gave the opening address in the 'Education Justice' campaign in Victoria in 1929, and was prominent in organizing the Catholic Education Congress of November 1936 in Adelaide, at which he moved the resolution to establish a Catholic Taxpayers' Association.In 1942 Burke was appointed C.M.G. His last years were spent quietly at his home at Armadale, where he died of cancer on 16 February 1949, survived by his wife, five sons and two daughters; he was buried in Melbourne general cemetery. His portrait by Max Meldrum hangs in the library of Burke Hall. '.DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1974 Burns HouseBurns Philp & Co Ltd shipping and travel agents(list of brokers, agents, solicitors and the Taxation Department)1961 Burns HouseBurns Philp & Co Ltdetc.1939,1944, 1950: 340-342 Burke House with list of occupiers1935, 340-342 Burke House, TM Burke P/L estate agents, list of occupiers1930 No 340-342
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Research and reports
Record number:
1197092
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 102136 | 1 JPEG : 783 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |