STRINGFELLOW'S HOUSE (RELOCATED)

Parent Place or Precinct

22385 North Fremantle Precinct

Child Places

• 21282 STRINGFELLOW'S HOUSE (RELOCATED)
• 21282 STRINGFELLOW'S HOUSE (RELOCATED)

Statement of Significance

Stringfellow's House, 3 Stirling Highway, is a relocated 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 Victorian Georgian style of architecture.

Physical Description

Stringfellow's House, 3 Stirling Highway, is a single storey weatherboard and iron cottage with symmetrical facade designed as a late example of the Victorian Georgian style of architecture. The walls are timber framed clad with painted weatherboards. The roof is hipped corrugated iron with no eaves. The verandah is under a separate bullnose corrugated iron roof, supported by chamfered timber posts. The front elevation is symmetrical with two timber sash windows and a central front door which has sidelights and a fanlight. There is a timber picket fence to the front boundary.
When relocated, the brick corbelled chimney was rebuilt, the interior was restored, and the kitchen and bathroom upgraded.

History

The portion of Stirling Highway that runs between the Swan River and the junction with Queen Victoria Street was formerly called Bruce Street. It was named after Colonel Bruce, head of the Pensioner Guards. In the early days of North Fremantle’s development, the favoured residential area for settlement was slightly west of the North Fremantle oval and named ‘Brucetown’.

Settlement of North Fremantle began in earnest in the late 1890s and Bruce Street was characterised by a mix of building types. On the southern side of the street between Queen Victoria Street (formerly Perth Road) and Tydeman Road (formerly Pensioner Road and then John Street), the buildings were predominantly residential. Industrial use was more common on the northern side.

Stirling Bridge was constructed across the Swan River at the end of Bruce Street in 1974. As Bruce Street now the major arterial link between the bridge and Stirling Highway, the street was widened and renamed as an extension of Stirling Highway.

In recent years, new high-density residential development of the areas adjacent to the river on either side of Stirling Highway has seen a significant change in the mix of buildings in the southern section of Stirling Highway. In 2004, the street continues to have a mix of residential, retail and industrial land use.

McCabe Place was formerly the north end of Thompson Road. When Ford Motor Company built a factory cutting across Thompson Road c.1927, the house at 1 McCabe Place (then 102 Thompson Road) was the only house remaining on the north side. Subsequently, permission was granted to change the remaining north end of the street to McCabe Place, after Jeanette Stringfellow at 102 Thompson Road (daughter of the original owner) who married Jock McCabe in 1956.

The residence now at 3 Stirling Highway was constructed originally at 102 Thompson Road for Burnett (Ben) Stringfellow by a friend in 1913-1914. Stringfellow had moved from NSW to Western Australia in 1903. Stringfellow was a blacksmith, and a founding member of North Fremantle Methodist Church. He raised his family at the place. His first wife, Jane (nee Richards) died in 1927, leaving three daughters. Stringfellow remarried, and he and his second wife, Nora Ellen, had another daughter. The Stringfellows lived at the place until Ben’s death in 1963, and the house remained in the family until 1968. After this the cottage became used for rental accommodation and the surrounding area became more industrialised.

A 1939 plan shows the house as a timber cottage with a verandah across its entire front elevation, and three free-standing outbuildings in the rear yard, one of which (closest to the house) is a laundry.

In the 1970s, the owner applied to build greyhound kennels at the place, but the application was refused as being not in keeping with Council policy.

An application to demolish the house in 1990 prompted the Timber House Group within the Planning Committee of the City of Fremantle to use the house as a test case for the ‘Innovative Timber Houses Recycling Project’. The project was jointly funded by the City of Fremantle and the State Government’s Homeswest and aimed to provide a solution to two problems - the increasing demolition of timber houses in Fremantle and the need to provide a variety of rental accommodation to clients of Homeswest.

In 1991, a newspaper article described the relocation of the residence as the result of an arrangement between Fremantle Council and Homeswest, whereby the two organisations worked together to save the cottage, which had become surrounded by an industrial area, and relocate it to vacant Council land for use as low-income rental housing.

The previously vacant site was created through amalgamation and subdivision of land owned by the City of Fremantle and the Water Authority of WA. The house was sawn in half for transport to the corner of Stirling Highway and Tydeman Road, approximately 1km away to the south, where it was to be rebuilt and restored by Homeswest.

Photographs show the place at that time in poor condition. It is timber-clad with fibrous cement interior walls. Brick fireplaces remain in at least three of the four main rooms. The place has a hipped corrugated iron roof and bullnose verandah with simple timber posts. The front entrance doorway has toplights and sidelights fitted with ripple glass. The rear of the residence has two hipped-roof sections and a skillion verandah covering a rear area enclosed with weatherboards, glass louvres, and fibrous cement.

The Mayor of Fremantle, John Cattalini, opened the cottage on 30 May 1991. Present at the opening was Burnett Stringfellow’s daughter and two granddaughters. In 2004, the cottage is used as a residence and managed by the Department of Housing and Works.

Integrity/Authenticity

Moderate degree of integrity (original intent clear, current use compatible, high long term sustainability, restored relocated)
Moderate degree of authenticity with original fabric remaining / relocated).
(These statements based on street survey only).

Condition

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

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

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