House

Parent Place or Precinct

26335 Hamersley Road Group Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The Hamersley Road heritage area is of:
Aesthetic Value
• As an aesthetically pleasing streetscape with a strong identifiable character, featuring an avenue of mature street trees, which frame views of the largely intact Federation and Inter War residences.
• For its collection of many good, representative examples of Federation and Inter War cottages and villas which collectively illustrate a range and evolution of detailing between the 1890s and the 1940s.
• For the cohesive streetscape created by a limited palette of materials and styles.
Historic Value
• As a representative collection of houses that illustrate the scale and standard of housing for the homes of unskilled workers to semi-professional and tradespeople, in the early twentieth century.
• For the evidence it provides about the manner in which the residence of semi-professional and tradespeople existed alongside the residences of working people and employees.
• For its association with the subdivision and rapid settlement of the area from the 1890s to the 1920s which demonstrates the rapid change of the district in the gold boom period and shortly thereafter.
Representativeness
• As a good representative collection of early twentieth century housing developed within walking distance of transport and services.
Physical Form in the Public Realm
• The houses, which (with the exception of two modern dwellings) were developed predominantly in the period 1898 to 1921, (and one in 1946) have largely retained their original external detailing and form. The defined period and nature of development has resulted in a consistent palette of materials and form, enlivened by diversity of individual details, with a cohesive streetscape.

Physical Description

Single storey brick and iron residence.

The house has a hipped roof with retained rendered corbelled chimneys and a separate bullnose verandah canopy, supported on turned timber posts. The deck is timber.

The brick elevation has a tuckpoint finish and rendered band approximately one third of the way up the elevation.

Not all the façade can be seen due to the garden planting. Visible elements include full height sash windows to the east of the entrance and simple entrance with timber panelled and glazed door with fanlight. No other details can be seen.

The garden is enclosed by timber picket fence.

History

The parcel of land of approximately four acres designated as Perth Suburban Lot 232 was purchase by NSW gentleman Issac Singlehurst Ponder in 1885.
The plan for the subdivision of this portion of Hamersley Road was formally approved by the Department of Lands and Surveys in 1898. Eight lots on the north side of Hamersley Road west of Federal Street were purchased by local real estate agent Alfred Henry Kearns Axon in June 1898.

In 1901, Lot 33 and portion of Lot 34 (HN282) were transferred to Walter Fielder a car builder of Fremantle. In June 1904, the property consisting of the two lots, was transferred to Lieutenant William Chalmers, of the Ordnance Department of the Commonwealth Defence Force. Rate Book Research indicates this place was constructed c.1905. This conclusion is supported by an advertisement in The West Australian in November 1905 in which Mrs Alice Chalmers requested

Lady-Help wanted, all duties, wages 12s 6d. Apply Mrs Chalmers, Hamersley Road near Railway Road, Subiaco.

Lieutenant Chalmers lived at the place until 1916. Alice Chalmers died in 1910 aged 42, apparently after a long illness.

In January 1917, the property was transferred to Arthur Warren, a police constable of York who appears to have rented the property until he occupied it in the 1930s. In 1940, the two lots were transferred to Clarice Muriel Hughes.

In 1947, the two lots were split onto two Certificates of Title and it is probably shortly after that when the property on lot 34 (HN282) was built.

The PO Directories list the following occupants:
• 1906 – 1916 William Chalmers
• 1917 – 1918 Samuel Vivian
• 1919 – 1932 Arthur Pettigrove, bootmaker
• 1933/34 Arthur Warren, police constable
• 1934/35 Alfred Cross
• 1935/36 Arthur Warren
• 1937/38 – 1940/41 Jno Limbourn
• 1942/43 – 1944 Robert Webb
• 1945-1949 Mrs Nellie Gates
An aerial photograph of the place in 1964 shows the original extent of the residence. An extension was constructed at the rear of the building in the early 1980s and this is largely the form and extent of the residence in 2017.

Integrity/Authenticity

The property presents in a largely intact manner with a high degree of authenticity. The roofing material has been replaced but this has little impact on the presentation of the place.

Condition

Good

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.