Edzell

Edzell, one of Toorak's grandest mansions, is strikingly located on an elevated site on the southern bank of the Yarra River. It was originally designed by the architects Reed Smart and Tappin in 1892 for James Cooper Stewart. Edzell is a red brick house with extensive half-timbered gabling, Marseilles-pattern tiles and terra cotta ridging, along with two asymmetrically placed turretted corner towers facing the river. Internally, the dining room features panelled timber ceiling and dado, which were executed in New Zealand rimu, embossed floral pattern wall paper, overdoors and a panelled timber mantel and overmantel with carved enrichments.

In 1917 the noted architect Walter Richmond Butler designed extensive but sympathetic external additions and a garden for the building's new owner, George Russell. A large ballroom was added, and this continued the Tudor manner with its panelled ceiling and dado. The main verandah was replaced with a half-timbered patterned brick balustrade and on the south the original gables were extended in the same pattern over a new brick verandah. Similarly, the entrance porch was built on brick piers. In 1935, under the ownership of Rose Krantz, the architect Edward Billson designed the subdivision of the interior into two maisonettes. By 1947 it had been divided into six flats. This involved superficial internal alterations and a new stair.

75 St George Road, Toorak, Vic.