Armstrong Cottage

Statement of Significance

• The residence is a simple but well detailed example of the Federation Queen Anne style executed in Limestone. • Through its location on a prominent corner and its well maintained setting it is a landmark in the streetscape. • The place is associated with the settlement and expansion of the Busselton townsite in the late 19th century by government officials and their families. • The place has historic value as an example of how midwifery was practiced in the first decades of the 20th century using residences for birthing and recovery in close proximity to the family home. • The cottage has historic value as a demonstration of the practice of many families who maintain a residence in a regional centre alongside the family farm. • The cottage has social value as its longevity of function and presence in the streetscape contribute to the community sense of place.

Physical Description

The house is located close to the front boundary and to the West Street boundary, with a modern brick pier and palisade fence around its street boundaries. The cottage is a distinctive symmetrical building that uses the decorative elements of the style, with steeply pitch gabled roofs sheeted with Colorbond custom orb roofing. The walls are limestone with quoins and there is a low‐pitched verandah with stop chamfered posts and post brackets. The front door is part glazed with side and hopper lights surrounding it, while windows are double hung sashes. A later development that employs a similar architectural language is located to the rear and east of the cottage.

History

This cottage was built c1890 for Police Commissioner Capt Frederick Arthur Hare (1852-1932) and his wife Margaret Elizabeth Brockman (1862-1924). The couple had married in Perth in 1888 when Frederich Hare was acting Government Resident in Albany. He had previously been Government Resident in Broome. No details of the builder or architect of the cottage has been detemined. Information from the electoral rolls suggest that Margaret Hare lived at the house during the 1900s whilst her husband undertook government appointments in York and Kalgoorlie. The couple had four children and by 1910, Margaret was living in Kelmscott. Previous research has determined that the house changed ownership and occupancy many times. In the 1900s it was owned by local businessman Mr Woods and in the 1920s, the place was occupied by pastoralist Claude Laffer and his wife, Eleanor Forrest Laffer, matron of the Busselton Hospital . It is understood she used this place as a private hospital as a maternity hospital. This was a common practice in the first half of the 20th century where women would give birth in residences that were often within walking distance of their own homes. Often only one or two women were accommodated at a time in these 'Lying In' Hospitals. In the 1950s, or possibly earlier, it was transferred to Cedar George Armstrong, dairy farmer of Mouquet Farm, Margaret River. The cottage was occupied by his mother Levessa Ann Lenore Armstrong, nee Cotton (1899-1987) from at least 1954 to 1972. It is likely the residence was used by members of the Armstrong family when visiting from the farm.The Armstrong family may have owned the property prior to and subsequent this period of occupancy. It is through this association that the place aquired its name. Aerial photographs indicate that the addition to the rear of the original cottage was built in the period between 1970 and 1986. Since that time there have been additions to the garage on the southern property boundary and the corrugated iron roof cladding has been replaced with red zincalume sometime in the 1990s.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity Notes: The place remains in use as a residence and retains a high degree of integrity. Authenticity Notes: Roofing has been replaced and the verandah appears to be largely reconstruction and replacement material. The place retains a moderate to high degree of authenticity. High Degree/Moderate-High Degree

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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