HOUSE, 2 CORKHILL STREET

Parent Place or Precinct

05868 Five Houses

Statement of Significance

House, 2 Corkhill Street is a typical weatherboard and iron single storey cottage dating from the 1910s. The place has aesthetic value for its contribution to the streetscape and the surrounding area. It is representative of the typical building stock located within the residential areas of North Fremantle. Historically significant as a representation of typical workers' houses in the North Fremantle area. The place is a simple example of the Federation Queen Anne style of architecture

Physical Description

House, 2 Corkhill Street is a single storey weatherboard and iron cottage with an asymmetrical facade designed as a very simple example of the Federation Queen Anne style. Walls are timber framed clad with weatherboards. The roof is hipped corrugated iron. The verandah is under a separate corrugated iron bullnose roof, supported by square timber posts with decorative timber brackets. Front elevation is asymmetrical with a protruding section with a replacement timber window with a skillion iron awning over, and a recessed section with window and front door under the verandah. There is a face brick corbelled chimney evident. An pitched roof steel carport addition is to the verandah side of the house. A timber picket fence forms the front boundary.

History

Corkhill Street was originally gazetted as Elizabeth Street, with the name change occurring in the 1930s. The majority of the street north of Harvest Road has no facing lots. It runs along the side boundaries of properties facing the perpendicular streets and was not included in early surveys for the area. A 1904 plan shows only one house in the street between John Street and Harvest Road, but by about the end of the decade, the entire west side of the street in this section was occupied by residences. The east side of the street, where the land backs onto the river and Point Direction, was the site of Browns Shipyards in this period. A.E. Brown had a large Federation-style residence at 1 Elizabeth Street (corner of John Street), which was later demolished, and used the grounds of this house as a holiday camp for disadvantaged children. Rate books of the 1920s and 1930s suggest that a number of the Corkhill Street houses were primarily rented out rather than being occupied by their owners. The land bounded by Harvest Road, Corkhill and John Streets was entirely taken up with sheds and shipyards for most of the twentieth century, with occupants including Northwest Whaling Company, Bradfords Insulation (1954 to 1970s), Precision Marine (late 1970s), and the Public Works Department. During World War Two these shipyards were used for the construction of timber vessels for the Australian Navy. No evidence of the shipyards now remains, as the area was subdivided in the late 1990s and redeveloped as a high density residential area.
House, 2 Corkhill Street was constructed c.1910, and occupied for about ten years by Mrs Mary Kennedy. From at least 1921 the place was owned by Thomas Welsh, with Rate Books recording Mrs Kennedy still in residence, where Post Office Directories list Welsh as resident from 1919.
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") This place was also included in the 'North Fremantle Heritage Study' (1994) as a place contributing to the development and heritage of North Fremantle.
Verandah infill was removed in 2004 along with other unsympathetic alterations.

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