House

Statement of Significance

House, 12 Symmons Street is a single storey, timber and tile house, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
the place was built during a period of growth in the local timber building industry prior to World War One;
the place demonstrates an adaptation of a rural vernacular form to an urban setting expressed in timber construction;
the place has social value to those who occupied it when it was a boarding house; and
the place demonstrates some aesthetic value in the refinement of early timber merchants' standard components.

Physical Description

House, 12 Symmons Street is a single storey, timber and tile house with a symmetrical facade constructed as an example of the Federation Bungalow style of architecture. The walls are timber framed with weatherboard cladding to the lower section and fibre cement sheeting to the upper. The roof is hipped with a small gablet and clad with tiles. The roof of a later 2 storey addition is visible from the street frontage. The verandah is under a continuous tiled roof and supported by square timber posts with decorative timber brackets. The symmetrical front facade has a central timber front door with side and fan lights flanked on either side by timber framed double hung sash windows. There is a brick and metal fence to the front boundary line.

History

Symmons Street is thought to have been named in honour of Charles Symmons who arrived in Western Australia in 1839. He was a civil servant who held many public offices and later became a prominent citizen in Bunbury, where he died in 1887. His obituary described him as ‘well read, observant, quaint and a gentleman; a welcome guest, a genial host’.

The land on which house 12 Symmons Street stands was originally owned by the trustees of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, who purchased town lots 134 and 135 in 1891 and 1893 respectively. The Church trustees never built on the land and in 1906 the lots were subdivided to create four smaller lots facing Symmons Street.

Ellen (Nellie) Moorhouse, a widow who had previously had a boarding house on Wittenoom Street, purchased Lot 1 in 1913. Moorhouse built the house with a short term mortgage from Millars Timber and Trading Company Ltd for an amount no more than £600. She repaid the mortgage the following year but did not live in the house until 1916.

Mrs Moorhouse sold House, 12 Symmons Street to Letticia Stafford in 1923. Mrs Stafford was a widow who had moved to Bunbury after the death of her husband William at Greenbushes. She had six sons the youngest being three years old. Moorhouse provided her with a mortgage of £500. Stafford owned the property until 1964, however between the years 1926 and 1936 the house was occupied by William Clifford. During this time Mrs Stafford lived at No. 27 Symmons Street.

From c.1938 Stafford was back at 12 Symmons Street and was running a boarding house there. Phyllis Barnes, of the Bunbury Historical Society, and her husband boarded with Stafford from September 1946 to February 1948, when housing was in short supply after World War Two. Barnes’ husband had first boarded at the place before his war service in 1938.

In 1964 James Patrick Clancy, a tally clerk, and his wife Eileen, purchased the place but did not live there. On Eileen’s death Clancy sold the place to Alan and Frances McRobb who lived there with their family. Alan McRobb was a shop assistant and it is thought that during his ownership of the place that renovations were carried out including the addition of an attic.

House, 12 Symmons Street was sold again in 1981 and has had a number of owners since then.

This history is based on the Documentary Evidence in Heritage Council of Western Australia, ‘Register of Heritage Places Below Threshold documentation: 12 Symmons Street’, prepared by Irene Sauman, 1998.

Integrity/Authenticity

High degree of integrity (original intent clear, current use compatible, high long term sustainability).
Medium degree of authenticity - alterations but with much original fabric remaining
(These statements based on street survey only).
Although the building remains largely in original form, alterations are evident in window treatments [replacement window wall]; a previous small wooden picket fence now replaced with modern brick and aluminium combination; and the former corrugated iron roof is currently fitted with decramastic tiles.

Condition

Condition assessed as good (assessed from streetscape survey only).

Uses

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.