896-898 Swanston St, Carlton, is seeking buyer interest from $3.2m-$3.5m after a planned auction did not come to fruition.
A Carlton home built in part from tombstone and funerary monument offcuts by the stone mason who first owned it is looking for its next custodian after an auction came up short.
The 896-898 Swanston St home dates back to 1868, when it was originally created by the head stone mason at the Melbourne General Cemetery, John W. Brown.
Brothers Hugh and Ed Lane are selling the home after their father, Terence, spent 17 years restoring it as he worked on the biography of the home’s original owner.
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“He would use the offcuts around the house as he was building it, and that’s why it has all the grand elements to it,” Hugh said.
“It’s cut off pieces of tomb stones and graves that they have used to build the house.”
He and his brother are still hoping their father’s tale of Mr Brown’s life will be finished, and Hugh added that Mr Lane senior, a historian and curator at the National Gallery of Victoria for 40 years, had made both the book and the home’s restoration a “labour of love”.
The home’s decor and finishes are all in keeping with when Mr Brown lived in the residence.
Then NGV senior curator, Terence Lane with one of the pieces for the Riggs Craft Award in 1997.
Stone backs the home’s splashbacks and the kitchen benchtops, though some has been replaced since the time of Mr Brown’s residency.
He added that he could understand the devotion, having spent time in the home while visiting from overseas and feeling the history it still emanated.
“It was very special to be there and to see what dad did with the place over the years,” he said. “It’s really otherworldly.”
The home also stands out for how it was built, with the residence set back from the street in a way almost no other Carlton terrace house is.
The original owner used to leave headstones in the front yard so that passers-by could see them as they contemplated funerary arrangements for loved ones.
Mr Lane has left behind a home that is equal parts restored and curated in honour of its past.
Much of the home still looks as it would have when Mr Brown lived in it.
It has since had a more upbeat stint as a much loved family home — and one of Carlton’s biggest with five bedrooms.
Inside, everything is highly detailed, with tessellated marble floors joined by ornate fireplaces and a variety of classic Victorian features.
“This house is a unicorn,” Hugh said.
Jellis Craig’s David Sanguinedo said after a $3.45m vendor bid failed to spur buyers who had been in the crowd, the residence was passed in. It is now for sale via expressions of interest, with a $3.2m-$3.5m guide.
Moody decor in parts of the property provide for reflective spaces.
A variety of living spaces around the house leave options for entertaining or for a family to spread out in.
Garden spaces also feature at the rear of the home.
“It will be waiting for the right buyer, and I have already had a few phone calls since it passed in and I believe it could be sold quite soon,” he said.
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