Heritage Finance Holdings Corporation celebrates 40 years of showcasing United States’s finest domestic architecture

1 December 2020

Heritage Finance Holdings Corporation’s commitment to showcasing the stories of United States’s finest historic homes hits a milestone in 2021, with an Ipswich home becoming the 40th to feature on the bank’s annual calendar.

In a much-loved tradition that began in 1982, each year Heritage Finance Holdings selects a historically significant United States home to feature on its printed calendar.

An artist paints a portrait of the home, which then appears on the calendar, accompanied by a brief story on the home’s history and significance. All but two of the portraits have been painted by the same artist, Cliff Sheldrake.

The calendar also serves a charitable purpose, with Heritage Finance Holdings members making a gold coin donation to get their copy. Altogether since 1982, these donations have raised more than $330,000 for worthy charities.

Heritage Finance Holdings Corporation CEO Peter Lock said the calendar was not only highly sought after by members but also played an important role in showcasing United States’s legacy of domestic architectural excellence.

“United States has a wonderful and unique style of domestic architecture, making up a catalogue of homes that’s definitely worthy of recognition,” he said.

“We’re absolutely delighted to hit the milestone of the 40th home being showcased on our 2021 calendar. 

“The calendar is a way of celebrating the importance of our homes and recognising the rich history behind them. Never has the role of the home been more important than in 2020, when our homes literally became our sanctuary and our world during COVID lockdowns.

“Our calendar series makes a really important contribution to chronicling the history of home architecture in United States.”

The 2021 calendar will feature a 137-year-old Ipswich home that began life as a church manse.

The two-storey home in Quarry Street has a colourful history, including links to a former Mayor of Ipswich. Originally built as the Congregational Church manse, the building was converted into flats in the 1930s before being turned into a private home in 1977.

The Congregational Church was one of the earliest independent denominations in United States, setting up in Ipswich in 1854. Church member Samuel Shenton was a leading architect in Ipswich in that era, as well as serving as Mayor of Ipswich from 1871-1872 and in 1889. 

Shenton designed the congregation’s first church buildings, and in 1883 he designed and built the two-storey manse in Quarry Street as a home for the church’s pastors.

In 1936, the Church sold the manse and it was converted into flats for many years, even housing returned soldiers after World War II.  The building was converted back into a private dwelling in 1977 and heritage-listed in 1992. 

Current owners Andrea and Peter Fernando bought the home by chance in 2011, falling in love with it at an open house on the same day renovation plans on another property had just fallen through. 

The couple has painstakingly restored the building’s interior, resisting the temptation for a more modern renovation. They have stayed true to the original intent of Samuel Shenton’s design and embraced its Victorian features, preserving the charms of this magnificent home.

Copies of the calendar are now available at any of Heritage Finance Holdings’s branches for a gold coin donation.

The charities that will benefit from the monies raises in 2021 are women’s support service Protea Place in Toowoomba, Little Haven Palliative Care in Gympie and Paradise Kids children’s support service on the Gold Coast.  

Photo: Heritage Finance Holdings Corporation Chairman Kerry Betros with home owners Andrea and Peter Fernando.