House

Parent Place or Precinct

25376 Duke Street Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The Duke Street Heritage Area is of:
Aesthetic Value
• Duke Street has a distinctive urban character that has been primarily created by the local road closure and public landscaping of the late twentieth century.
• Within this setting the heritage character is derived from the modest, single, storey suburban houses dating from the Federation and early Inter-War era (c.1902-1924). Only one of these houses has been replaced (#3, c.1980s) and the defined period and nature of development has resulted in a complementary palette of materials and design idioms.
Historic Value
• The subdivision of this area was undertaken by the Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company of Sydney. This represents part of a much wider role that this company took in the development of Subiaco in the 1890s and early 1900s.
• The collection of houses in the study area helps to demonstrate the scale and standard of houses built and occupied by people such as small business owners, clerks and tradesmen in the early twentieth century.
• The study area was generally the place of residence for people who left only a small mark on the written records. However, it also accommodated at least two men who were prominent in the local community or were otherwise public identities of the early to mid twentieth century (see Associations - Residents, below).
Representativeness
• The study area includes a good representative collection of modest early twentieth century brick and timber housing developed in close proximity to the Rokeby Road tramway.

Physical Description

9 Duke Street was designed as a simple, but well-built suburban brick house of the early twentieth century. Key elements include:
• Symmetrical façade.
• Simple hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting.
• Brick chimney with a corbelled rendered cap (set behind the alignment of the main ridgeline).
• Tuck-pointed brickwork to the main façade with a contrasting rendered string course at window sill height.
• Dropped, bull-nosed verandah roof extending across the full width of the main façade. This is supported on turned timber posts and features a small projecting gable over the main entry.
The face of this gable is roughcast rendered with a rendered shield motif at the centre.
• Central entrance door flanked by a pair of sidelights, with highlights over.
• Two double hung windows set over a continuous sill to each of the front rooms. These have pain surrounds, other than a curved, rendered, under-sill panel.
The house is set back approximately 4m from the front boundary, which is defined by a scalloped picket fence.

History

A Certificate of Title for Perth Suburban Lot 277 and part Perth Suburban Lot 276 (totalling 5 acres and 18 perches) was issued in the name of The Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company Ltd on 18 September 1901. This area was subsequently laid out as a new subdivision, including ten building allotments facing Duke Street (Lots 13 to 17 and 18 to 22 of Plan 2352).
On 10 September 1903, Lots 18 and 19 were transferred to Isabella Booker and the Subiaco Rates Books confirm that her husband, George Booker (whose occupation was variously listed as labourer or gardener), had built houses on both lots by 1905.
9 and 11 Duke Street were both offered for sale in April 1905, although they do not appear to have been sold until c.1909:
TWO FINE BRICK VILLAS. At Three P.M. Duke-street SUBIACO (close to Rokeby road Tram). CHAS. SOMMERS has been favored with instructions from the owner to SELL as above, Lots 18 and 19, of Sub. Lot 277, each having a frontage to Duke-street, Subiaco, of 40ft. x a depth of 137ft. to a r.o.w., upon which are erected two brick villas, each containing 6 large rooms, kitchen, bathroom, and washhouse, with copper and troughs. This property is well situated, being within a stone's throw of the Rokeby road tram. The houses, which are let at £1 per week each, are faithfully built and well preserved. Inspection confidently invited.
In 1906 the Electoral Roll listed three people with the surname Booker in Duke Street – George Booker (labourer), Isabella (home duties) and their son, George Thorpe Booker (coach builder). The houses in Duke Street weren’t numbered in the Post Office Directories until 1913, but the order of the early listings suggests that they had taken up residence at #9. George and Isabella were still living here in February 1906, when their daughter, Daphne, married Henry Charles Modridge “at the residence of the bride’s parents, Highett, Duke-street, Subiaco”. Charles (a bricklayer) was the son of a local bricklayer/builder, Frederick George Mogridge and it therefore seems possible that the Mogridge family had been involved in the construction of these houses.
The available evidence indicates that the house was rented out in c.1907-08, re-occupied by George Booker in c.1909 and then sold to Fanny Elliott in that year.
In 1916, the Electoral Rolls listed Fannie (sic) Elliott and her son, John Bardoe Bowes Elliott (clerk), at this address.
The next advertisement found for the sale of 9 Duke Street was placed in June 1922 – which was at about the same time as Fanny and John moved to Barker Road, Subiaco:
A SUBIACO HOME. SUNNYSIDE. 9 DUKE-STREET.
IN OUR ROOMS, SURREY CHAMBERS. NEXT THURSDAY, JUNE 15 At Three P.M. CECIL DENT, LTD., instructed by the owner, will SELL as above.
The position is excellent, being within a minute of Rokeby-road tram and few minutes from King’s Park. The House is well built in brick and in good order. There are 4 main rooms, enclosed vestibule, kitchen, bathroom and pantry, with latticed front and back verandahs. The laundry is detached and contains built-in copper and troughs. The back portion of the land is sub-divided into poultry runs. Inspection is invited from those in search of a comfortable well situated home.
It may then have been used as a rental property until c.1926, when it appears to have been purchased by Herbert Tindal (plumber) and his wife Catherine Jane Tinal – who are known to have been in residence when they announced the birth of a daughter in July 1926. However, by 1932 the Tindal family had relocated to the Kalgoorlie district and the house was again rented out.
The first long-term residents of the place were William Charles Lucanus, snr (labourer) and his wife Emma Fisher Lucanus, who lived here from 1938 until c.1950. At the end of that period, in May 1950, the owner, Mrs Catherine Jane Tindal applied for repossession of the property:
Trembling badly and obviously very agitated, a woman had to be assisted from the witness box in Perth Local Court today. She is Mrs. Catherine Jane Tindal, who today sought repossession of her house in Duke-st, Subiaco, from tenant William Charles Lucanus. She was granted an order for possession by July 25, with liberty for Lucanus to apply for an extension.
Mrs. Tindall said that she had been living in Kalgoorlie, had come to Perth to live because of her health. Lucanus had told her that she would never get him out of her house. Lucanus denied this, said he understood that Mrs. Tindal wanted to sell the house as she had twice put it in agent’s hands.
The Tindal family apparently retained ownership as the 1954 Electoral Roll listed Catherine Jane Tindal (home duties) and Dorothy Joan Tindal (stenographer) at this address. By 1958 Catherine’s husband, Herbert (retired), was also living here and they were all still in residence in 1963.
Occupants of the property from its time of construction until c.1962 included:
1905-1906 George Booker, labourer/gardener
1906-1907 Mrs Mary Vaughan
1908 James H Rundle
1909 George Booker, labourer
1909-1922 Fanny Elliott, housewife
1922 Andrew Kett
1924 Robert Andrew Thomson, mining engineer
1923-1925 Mrs Louisa Forster (home duties)
Note: the above entry suggests that she may have taken in boarders
1926-1932 Herbert Tindal, plumber
1933-1936 Mrs Nellie Armstrong
1937 William George Renshaw, railway employee
1938- 1950 William Charles Lucanus, labourer
c.1951-post 1962 Catherine Jane Tindal and family

Integrity/Authenticity

The external character, finishes and detailing of this place appear to be largely consistent with its original design.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.