Emulation Hall, the 1927 Egyptian Revival Canterbury offering
Emulation Hall, one of Australia's last remaining examples of Egyptian Revival architecture, has been listed for sale with offers due 4 September.
Designed by Dunstan Reynolds & Partners in 1927, the longtime Masonic Centre has quite extraordinary dimensions.
It is marketed for sale at the moment as suitable for possible educational or commercial application. Even a home, the Jellis Craig listing agent Paul Batrouney suggests.
More than $1.5 million is tipped.
Emulation Lodge finally in the 1990s and the temple was acquired by Chatham Lodge No 459 which still meets there.
From the start, the hall was also made available for community use, including the Canterbury & District Horticultural Society annual flower show, dances and local chess clubs.
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The property at 3 Rochester Road, Canterbury was designed in the Egyptian Revival style that remains especially rare and unusual in Victoria.
The best known example of the style is the Syme Memorial at Boroondara Cemetery, Kew, designed by Walter Butler in 1908 – effectively, a scaled replica of the Temple of Isis at Philae.
There are only two other Egyptian Revival masonic temples in Victoria – the Zetland Lodge in Piper Street, Kyneton, which has a lavish Egyptian-themed interior (1905) within an older building of conventional form, and the Sandringham Lodge at 23 Abbott Street, Sandringham (1931), a purpose-built venue where the Egyptian influence is expressed both inside and out.
Example of inter-war Egyptian Revival buildings of other types include the former Bank of NSW in Bourke Street, Melbourne, (1929) and the Wimmera Stock Bazaar in Horsham (1935).
The inter-war Egyptian Revival building has a symmetrical façade importing two pylon-like wings that flank a central projecting porch.
Its Egyptian-inspired detailing includes large coved and fluted cornices and matching window heads, tapered walls, small windows, scarabs and winged sun motifs. Internally, the main hall and lodge room are decorated with elements including pilasters, dadoes and stencilled and moulded ornament depicting Egyptian motifs and masonic symbols.
The building was erected in 1927-28 for Emulation Lodge No 141 (which was founded in Box Hill in 1889) and was designed by architect Dunstan Reynolds, who was both a local resident and a lodge member.
His original working illustrations are included in the local heritage listing.
Courtesy of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
Declared insolvent in 1938, Reynolds left his wife and moved to Sydney, where he made an unsuccessful attempt to re-launch his private practice. Dogged by litigation as well as illness, he died in 1949 at the age of 51 years.
What to make of its ball-room-style main hall regally crowned with towering decorative ceiling.
