Specimen Cottage

Specimen Cottage, located at 178-180 Hargreaves Street in Bendigo, is the city's oldest original house, built in 1856 by stonemason James Brierley. The 1856 section features a front façade of local coursed sandstone rubble, with dressed quoins and dressings to openings; the side walls are rubble; the rear and internal walls are of red brick. It has a central front door with one window on either side. The roof was probably originally hipped. The name Specimen Cottage, and the date 1856, are carved in the keystone above the door. It was probably intended to advertise and to demonstrate Brierley’s craft as a stone mason.