House, 7 McCallum Ave, Daglish

Parent Place or Precinct

24361 Daglish Conservation Area

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance for the City of Subiaco:
• As a representative example of the houses developed with the assistance of the Workers Homes Board in the late 1920s (aesthetic values).
• For the way in which it helps to illustrate the inter-war development of Daglish with a mixture of Workers Homes Board and private housing (historic values).
• For its contribution to the Inter-War, Garden Suburb qualities of the 1925 subdivision of Daglish (aesthetic values).
Subject to further confirmation it is also possible that this is an example of the residential work of a prominent Western Australian architect, Kenneth Charles Duncan (historic values).

Physical Description

Roof form and materials
• Visually prominent gabled roof, clad with terracotta tiles, with terracotta rams-horn finials to the gable ends.
• Wide street-facing gable at the south-eastern end of the main façade, extending over the front room and the entrance porch.
• Wide gables on either side of the house.
• Roughcast rendered chimney with a simple flat cap.
• Raked awning forming a verandah across the north-western part of the main façade.
Note: this appears to have been constructed as part of the late twentieth century alterations and additions.
Wall materials and finishes
• Tuck-pointed face-brick to the lower half of the main façade; roughcast render to the upper half (the latter extending in an unbroken line to the top of the gable).
• Simple pair of vertical terracotta vent bricks, framed in face brick, at the apex of each gable.
Form and detailing of main façade(s)
• Asymmetrical stepped façade (facing north-east).
• Projecting wing set towards the south-eastern end of the street facing gable, with an abutting entry porch at the north-western end.
This front wall features a bank of three double hung windows, which are asymmetrically located in relation to the width of the gable. The window opening is framed by a raked, tiled window awning with plain timber brackets, and a simple raked and rendered sill.
• Entry porch framed by a wide semi-circular arch on the north-eastern (street) side; a pair of semi-circular arches on the north-western side; and the side of the front room on the south-eastern side.
The entry porch also features face brick piers with projecting, plain rendered caps; and a timber panelled ceiling which is partly raked to follow the line of the gable, over.
The entrance to the house (abutting the front room at the rear of the porch) features a segmental head and a high-waisted door with a geometric glazed panel to the upper third (no side or highlights).
• Pair of French doors opening onto the verandah across the north-western part of the main façade.
This part of the façade has been modified as part of modern alterations and additions.
Streetscape setting
• Main façade set back approx. 7m from the front boundary.
• Front boundary defined by a masonry fence, with tall face-brick piers and low rendered and scalloped walls. Dense verge and garden planting.
Major alterations
• Alterations undertaken in the late twentieth century included an extension along the north-western side of the house, occupying an area previously used as a narrow driveway to a detached rear garage. Aerial photographs suggest that this included the construction of the verandah roof that extends across the north-western end of the main façade. It also relocated the entry steps from the north-western side of the porch to the northern eastern side (facing the street) and included the redesign of the window detailing in this area.
Along the north-western boundary the addition has been built up to a parapet wall.
• Other alterations/additions are not visible from the street frontage.

History

In 1925, the first part of the suburb of Daglish was laid out by the State Government on an undeveloped railway reserve, with the subdivision applying elements of the Garden Suburb model of development. In October 1925 the first auction for the new town site resulted in the sale of 96 of the 110 lots offered in the area bounded by Troy Terrace, part of Robinson Street, what is now Olga Place, Stubbs Terrace, the southern end of Cunningham Terrace and Millington Avenue. The reserve prices for different lots were set at £50, £75 and £100, with the price increasing with proximity to the railway. Houses were developed here from c.1927/1928, and the readily available evidence suggests that about 1/3 of these were built with the assistance of the Workers Homes’ Board or War Service Homes Commission.
McCallum Avenue was first listed in the PO Directories in 1929, when only two primary residents were identified for this street: Charles W A Stanwell and Thomas Finch. In the Rate Books of 1929-30, Charles Stanwell was identified as the owner/occupier of 7 McCallum Avenue and in the 1937-38 Rate Books ‘WHB’ was marked next to this listing – which suggests that it may have been one the houses built with the assistance of the Workers Homes Board.
As some of the WHB houses were built to designs provided by the occupant, it is possible that this was the house referred to in a call for tenders in March 1927:
TENDERS are invited until noon on Saturday, March 26, for BRICK RESIDENCE, Daglish, for C. Stanwell, Esq. No tender necessarily accepted. Plans and Specifications at my office.
K. C. DUNCAN, A.R.I.A. Architect, T. and G. Chambers, St. George's-terrace, Perth.
Note: Kenneth Charles Duncan was a Western Australian architect who gained some of his early experience with the War Service Homes Division in WA. Duncan entered into private practice in 1921, and subsequently undertook a wide range of residential and commercial projects, as well as designing numerous fire stations. He served as president of the Royal Institute of Architects of Western Australia in 1939-1940 and of the RAIA (WA) in 1954-1956. He was elected as the first Western Australia Federal President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1959.
The period of construction corresponds with the house being built as a family home for Charles William Alexander Stanwell (c.1903-1971) and Ailsa Annie Drummond (c.1908-1991), who were married at St Andrews Church in Perth in November 1927. In the period 1931-1935 this couple had 3 children and were therefore typical of the many young families who made the new suburb of Daglish their home.
Charles was identified in the Electoral Rolls as a commercial traveller, but in the period around WWII enlisted in the armed forces. He was serving as a General Staff Officer at the Swan Barracks in 1946, by which time he had attained the rank of Major.
Ailsa and Charles were divorced in 1946, after which 7 McCallum Avenue continued to be occupied by Ailsa until at least 1980 (sharing the house for much of this time with her second husband, Brian Waghorn).
Historical aerial photographs show that the footprint of the house remained unchanged until at least 1989. By 1995 additions had been constructed at the rear and along the north-western side of the house, together with what appears to have been a new verandah roof along the north-western end of the main façade. Further rear additions were constructed in 2005-2006, including a new detached garage with access from the rear lane.

Integrity/Authenticity

Medium: The original external detailing appears to be largely intact as visible from the street. However, the north-western end of the main façade has been altered and extended (largely concealed from the street by a courtyard walls and garden planting).

Condition

Good: Based on a streetscape inspection the place appears to be in a sound condition.

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.