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Boom & Bust: Domestic Architecture
Late Victorian houses in Ipswich were generally single storey timber construction, although Ipswich has some single and two storey mansions of brick construction. Two storey timber buildings are uncommon. The plan form continued to keep semi-detached kitchen wings and roof forms were generally hipped or pyramidal. Towards the end of the period, important front rooms were projected across the verandah with a prominent gable, breaking the earlier symmetry of design. Verandahs to the front and sometimes both sides of the building continued as a Queensland tradition. Houses were generally on timber stumps and many had chimneys.
Houses of this period were predominantly of timber frame clad in pine chamferboards externally. Floors were of hoop pine tongue and groove boarding. Roofing was generally of corrugated galvanised iron with ogee gutters. Joinery such as windows, doors, architraves and skirting were often of Australian Cedar but with joinery to less important rooms constructed from pine. Windows continued to be of the double hung sash type but with larger panes of glass than the earlier colonial period. Internal walls consisted generally of vertical tongue and groove beaded jointed boarding with horizontal belt rails. More decorative elements than the earlier period. The use of decorative cast iron lace balustrade panels, friezes, brackets and roof cresting became popular and widespread. Timber fretwork pediments over the front stairs were common. Ridge ventilators, window hoods, finials, acroterions and lattice panels were all part of the detailing of this period. Verandah columns were generally square section, stop chamfered and with capital moulds.
