House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The Union and Redfern Street Heritage Area is significant for:
Aesthetic Value:
The area contains aesthetically pleasing streetscapes with a strong heritage character. In particular, cohesive streetscapes have been created by a limited palette of materials and styles.
The area contains many good, representative, suburban examples of Federation Queen Anne houses and Federation Bungalows. These include both gentlemen’s villas and modest suburban houses, and collectively illustrate a gradual evolution in architectural detailing of these places between 1899 and the early Inter-war years.
Historic Value:
The residential subdivision of this area represents the early development activities of Sydney and Melbourne based real estate agents and property developers. In this context it helps to illustrate the status of Western Australia as a place of opportunity during the gold rush era of the late nineteenth century – attracting significant interest and investment from the eastern states.
The collection of houses in the heritage area helps to demonstrate the manner in which the family residences of professional men and business owners (such as senior civil servants and merchants) existed side by side with the smaller houses of semi-professional and tradespeople.
The collection of houses in the heritage area helps to illustrate the scale and standard of housing considered appropriate for these families in the early twentieth century.
The area was a place of residence for a number of people who were prominent in the local business community or were otherwise public identities of the early to mid-twentieth century.

Physical Description

4 Campbell Street was designed as a modest single storey Federation Queen Anne house. It has painted-brick walls (originally tuck-pointed face-brick to the main facade) and a gabled-hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. The roof features louvered gablet vents at either end of the main north-south ridgeline, and a prominent street front gable, featuring a square pattern of timber battens and a turned timber finial. Two face brick chimneys (now painted) were detailed as decorative elements, with stepped faces and corbelled caps.
The projecting gabled wing on the southern side of the main façade has two double hung windows set under a raked awning. These windows share a continuous moulded, rendered sill with a curved under-sill panel.
The front verandah abuts the projecting wing and extends across the remainder of the façade. This has a dropped bullnose roof, turned timber posts, and lace-work valance, brackets and balustrade.
The main entrance to the house is located under the verandah, adjacent to the southern wing. This has a traditional early twentieth century form with a five-panelled door, highlights and two narrow sidelights (all with stained glass detailing). The verandah area also features two individual, full-height double hung windows.
The house is set back approximately 4.2m from the front boundary, which is defined by a low timber picket fence. The small front yard has been laid out with brick paving and planter beds.
Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in good condition.

History

Perth Suburban Lot 253 was purchased by John Brandon, John Thomas Lawler and Thomas Tate of Sydney in October 1889 and, about six months later, it was transferred to Thomas Read of Sydney, solicitor. Read did not develop the 5 acre site and it was on-sold to the Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company of Sydney in October 1897. Building lots in Deposited Plan 1933 began to be sold along the Rokeby Road frontage of PSL 253 from May 1898 and the first sites to be sold along Campbell Street (Lots 31 and 32) were transferred to a new owner in June 1899. However, development was slow and the first houses were not built until 1903/04.
Lot 33 was sold to Arthur Thomas Sharp in September 1902. The Subiaco Rates Books indicate that a house had been had been constructed on this lot by 1906, when it was owned and occupied by Herbert Heeps (a clerk in the Government Stores Department) and his wife Mary.
Following her husband’s death in December 1914, it seems that Mary may have taken in boarders for a short time, before moving to West Perth. 4 Campbell Street may have then been rented out before being offered for sale in June 1918:
No. 4 Campbell-st. Subiaco: Brick VILLA, 5 rooms, gas and wood stove, laundry, trough and copper, electric light, cement paths.
A high turn-over of occupants suggests that it then remained a rental property until at least the early 1930s, at which time it was being advertised as 5 Rooms, good order, 20/-
From 1934 it once again became a long-term family home, when it was occupied by Richard and Edith Smart (when Richard was about 63 years old).
Until the mid-1940s, other adults living in the house included their son Edwin (a clerk), daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Clifford Saddlier. Edith died in 1944 and the available information suggests that Richard moved out in c.1949, to live with his daughter-in-law, Pauline Smart.
Occupants of the property from its time of construction until c.1949 included:
1906-1914 Herbert Lloyd Heeps (clerk, Government Stores Department)
1915-1916 Mrs Mary Heeps (widow), John Cameron & Howard Langsford
1916-1917 Albert Vance, manager
1918 Mrs Jessie Pearce
1919-1920 Percy Mellows, clerk
1921-1926 Neil Scott, salesman
1927 Sydney Gould
1928-1930 Vacant
1931-1932 George William Wilson, civil servant
1933 Mrs Mary Blanche Mitchell
1934-c.1949 Richard Sydney Edward Smart, carrier

Integrity/Authenticity

Note: The painting of the main façade has impacted on the authenticity and traditional character of the place. However, the underlying form and detailing remains consistent with the original design and the key elements of the traditional streetscape.

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.