HOUSE (DEMOLISHED), 45 RULE STREET

Parent Place or Precinct

22385 North Fremantle Precinct

Physical Description

DEMOLISHED. Retained on MHI for historical information only.

History

Originally named Bay Road, Rule Street first appears on an 1873 survey diagram. The change of name was officially gazetted on 14 February 1969, although Bay Road was referred to as Rule Street or Rule Road as early as 1962. The street was named after Charles Rule, who was a North Fremantle councillor from 1948 to 1960 and a Fremantle councillor in 1961/62 and again from 1968 to 1973. Charles Rule was an active member of the North Fremantle community who service on the Fremantle Advisory Committee, was president of the Friendlies Societies Pharmacies for 21 years and was secretary of the North Fremantle Bowling Club.

Rule Street is typified by workers cottages, where workers from Burfords Soap Factory, labourers and lumpers lived. In 1980 a $2 million restoration project converted the old soap factory into residential apartments, following the lead of “The Regency” at 47 Rule Street, where four up-market river-front units had been built two years earlier.

A two-room cottage was erected in this area in 1886, and it is not clear which lot it ends up on when subdivision occurs in 1895. However, it seems probable that it was NOT the existing house at 45 Rule Street. Rate records between 1895 and 1955 have on the whole not been retained for North Fremantle, so it is difficult to identify when it the current house was built.

The house appears on a 1904 plan, and appears to be first evident in the Post Office Directories in 1902, at which time it was occupied by Frederick Williams. By 1922 it was listed as a five-room timber cottage, at that time passing between the ownership of the estate of D. Finlay to A.H. Massie. From the following year Frank Gillett is noted as occupant and owner, until his death c.1927. By 1931, the place was occupied by Robert James Murrie. The Murrie family remained in residence until at least 1968.

Approval was granted for a garage to be built at the rear of the house in 1967, and another in 1973. An application to build a factory on the site was cancelled in 1972. Plans show that extensions had also been made to the rear of the house between 1967 and 1970.

This place was identified by the Fremantle Society in 1979/80 as being of cultural heritage significance. (Coded: Brown: "Positively contributing to the built environment")

The place was demolished c1992. (Real Estate ads in 1996 for ‘1/45 Rule Street’ note the residence is three years old.)

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