House

Parent Place or Precinct

26002 Kershaw Street Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The Kershaw Street Heritage Area is of cultural heritage significance within the City of Subiaco for the following reasons:
• As an aesthetically pleasing streetscape with a strong heritage character, featuring a narrow avenue of mature street trees, which frame views of the largely intact Federation and early Inter-War vials.
• For its retention of many good, representative examples of Federation Queen Anne villas (which collectively illustrate a gradual evolution in architectural detailing between 1904 and c.1918).
• For the cohesive streetscape created by a limited palette of materials and styles.
• As a representative collection of houses that illustrate the scale and standard of housing considered appropriate for the families of professional men, such as merchants, bankers and civil servants in the early twentieth century.
• For the evidence it provides about the manner in which the residences of senior professional men and business owners existed side by side with the smaller residences of more junior employees in early twentieth century Subiaco.
• For its association with the subdivision of this area by James Chesters, an investor from Melbourne, in 1892. In this context it also represents the status of Western Australia as a place of opportunity during the gold rush era of the late nineteenth century – attracting significant investment from the eastern states.
• For its association with the efforts of James Chesters as a local land agent and property developer, following his move to Western Australia in 1905.
• For its association with Joseph (Joe) Totterdell, who was responsible for the construction of many Subiaco houses (including some in Kershaw Street), and who, for a brief period (1916-17), lived at 25 Kershaw Street (one of his development properties).

Physical Description

67 Hamersley Road was designed as a large, single storey Federation Queen Anne style villa. It has red, stretcher-bond, face-brickwork walls and a complex gabled-hipped, terracotta tile roof, with curved terracotta finials and louvered gablets. The face-brick chimneys have roughcast rendered, bulbous, caps and terracotta pots.
This house addresses the corner with a return verandah under a continuous, broken-back roofline. A prominent gable, with a roughcast render and half-timbered effect to the face, punctuates this roofline along each street facade. The deep arched valance and turned timber posts of the timber-floored verandah are other key streetscape elements.
The walls to both street facades are tuck-pointed, with two plain rendered stringcourses, one at window sill height, the other at door height. The main entrance is located asymmetrically along the Hamersley Road frontage, and features stained-glass sidelights and highlights. It is flanked by a single double hung window to the east and a pair of double hung windows to the west, both with projecting moulded sills along the string line. The Kershaw Street façade features a projecting wing at the end of the return verandah. This wing has a shallow rectangular window bay, which is set over a rendered plinth and shaded by a raked awning on decorative curved brackets. The windows to this Bay are triple casements, with highlights featuring small panes set in a curved head.
The alignment of the verandah is set back approximately 4m from both street boundaries. The front yard has established plantings of trees, shrubs, lawn and flowers and is bounded by a scalloped picket fence with ball-capped square posts. The rear portion of the yard, to the Kershaw Street frontage, has a high brick wall partly covered by ivy. At the south-east corner there is a modern double garage which has been built up to the Kershaw Street boundary.
The original house retains a high level of original external detailing, although the rear garage extensions have impacted on the Kershaw Street frontage. Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in good condition.

History

James Chesters, an investor from Melbourne, purchased Perth Suburban Lots 249 and 250 in 1891. In the following year he had this area laid out as a new residential estate (Deposited Plan 504), which included the creation of Lots 124 and 125 (67 Hamersley Road). Chesters applied for a separate title for Lots 116 to 128 in 1906, but development did not take place on the corner until 1914. By that time it was in the ownership of Fredrick Hore, who was advertising it for sale with a newly built house named ‘Minsha’:
A GENTLEMAN'S newly built Brick RESIDENCE, corner block, in highest part of Subiaco, bright surroundings, close to trams and King's Park, 6 large rooms, tiled roof, e.l, gas stove, 'phone, spacious verandahs, lawn, motor garage, every convenience …….FRED. HORE, 67 Hamersley-rd., Subiaco.
and
DOUBLE-FRONTED Brick Villa ….. corner block, 64ft. x 110ft. to r.o.w. Price: £1,150 cash or £1,250 terms. £100 deposit ….
It was next offered for sale in 1917:
James Chesters, an investor from Melbourne, purchased Perth Suburban Lots 249 and 250 in 1891. In the following year he had this area laid out as a new residential estate (Deposited Plan 504), which included the creation of Lots 124 and 125 (67 Hamersley Road). Chesters applied for a separate title for Lots 116 to 128 in 1906, but development did not take place on the corner until 1914. By that time it was in the ownership of Fredrick Hore, who was advertising it for sale with a newly built house named ‘Minsha’:
A GENTLEMAN'S newly built Brick RESIDENCE, corner block, in highest part of Subiaco, bright surroundings, close to trams and King's Park, 6 large rooms, tiled roof, e.l, gas stove, 'phone, spacious verandahs, lawn, motor garage, every convenience …….FRED. HORE, 67 Hamersley-rd., Subiaco.
and
DOUBLE-FRONTED Brick Villa ….. corner block, 64ft. x 110ft. to r.o.w. Price: £1,150 cash or £1,250 terms. £100 deposit ….
It was next offered for sale in 1917:
ROBERTSON' BROS., LIMITED, have been favoured with instructions from C. Burmeister, Esq., who is leaving the State, to SELL as above: Lots 124 and 125 of Perth Suburban Lot 249, having a frontage of 64ft. to Hamersley-road, by a good depth along Kershaw-street, with a very handsome Brick Residence with tiled roof, containing 5 large rooms, kitchen, bathroom, washhouse, copper and troughs, wide verandahs front and back, electric light and gas, motor garage, grounds beautifully laid out in garden, lawns, special rose beds, well matured hedge, cement paths, etc. This is undoubtedly one of the most attractive Residences in the best portion of Subiaco, especially well constructed in every detail, only 4 minutes walk from King's Park and tram.
Occupants of the property from its time of construction until 1949 included:
1914-1915 Frederick Hore
1916-1918
Carl Burmeister (Importer)
Note: Carl Burmeister was a watchmakers’ and jewellers’ equipment wholesaler. He moved to Perth from Victoria as a young child and married Eleanor Millard in 1915. By 1919 they had returned to Melbourne.
1919 Eric Arthur Toogood (Bank Clerk)
1920-1925 William Archibald G Colclough (Insurance Secretary)
1926-1949 Miss Eileen Mary Newman (Clerk)
Information in the electoral rolls indicates that Eileen Newman continued to live here until at least the early 1970s.

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.