House, 115 Bagot Rd, Subiaco

Parent Place or Precinct

27310 Park Street Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

For information on the significance of the Park Street Heritage Area refer to the Local Planning Policy for the Heritage Area.

Physical Description

Architectural style 115 Bagot Road was designed as a modest suburban house, and does not represent any of the major architectural styles of the Inter-War era. It was designed to a scale and form generally considered suitable for occupiers such as office workers, retail employees and both skilled and unskilled tradesmen. Plan form at the street frontage • Symmetrical facade. This features a central entrance door, flanked by windows to each of the front rooms. Roof form and materials • Hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. • Small gablet and tall timber finial at the end of the N-S ridgeline. • Face-brick chimney with projecting rendered cap (in a style consistent with the early twentieth century). • Bull-nose verandah roof. Wall materials and finishes to the main facade • Flush panel sheeting over a weatherboard skirt (materials and style consistent with the Inter-War era). Other detailing to main facade • Centrally located entrance door (not original), with a highlight but no sidelights. • Single double-hung window to each of the front rooms, both fitted with wrought iron security screens. • Plain timber sills and architraves. • Renovated verandah detailing including turned timber posts, diagonal cross balustrade and a frieze set with turned timber balustrettes. • Centrally located steps leading from a timber lynch gate (the latter possibly dating from c.2000). Streetscape setting • House set back approximately 3.5m from the Bagot Road frontage. • Lot width approximately 10.1m. • House set close to the western boundary and approximately 1.6m from the eastern boundary. • Front yard enclosed by a low rendered masonry wall capped by a timber picket fence.

History

Subiaco's population increased significantly in the 1890s due to an economic depression in the eastern states and the discovery of gold in Western Australia. During the 1890s property developers bought large landholdings for subdivision in the Perth metropolitan area. The original subdivisions in Subiaco were generally simple grid pattern developments with small lots suitable for occupancy by working families. However, the more elevated parts of the suburb, particularly towards Kings Park, also attracted business and professional men and some lots were later amalgamated to accommodate their larger homes and gardens. Mixed development occurred and within the Park Street Heritage Area this ranged from narrow, single storey terrace housing through to a large 2-storey house set in spacious grounds. The readily available evidence indicates that the number of houses within this area increased from around 24 in 1901 to 72 in 1906; 86 in 1910; 91 in 1915, 94 in 1920 and 13 by 1925. Development then stabilised, with 106 houses and 1 block of flats identified in 1949. Perth Suburban Lots 243 to 246 were subdivided as Deposited Plan 352 in the early 1890s. This comprised 141 lots of which Lot 3 was developed as 115 Bagot Road. The Post Office Directories did not include street numbers for Bagot Road until 1906, but an analysis of the sequence of entries suggests that 115 Bagot Road had probably been built by 1900. In the Rate Books of 1903 ‘S Brown’ was identified as the owner and F Tooker (Arthur Forbes Tooker, civil servant/clerk) as the occupier. The Rate Books continued to identify S Brown/Samuel Brown as the owner until at least 1918-1919. 115 Bagot Road had a high turn-over of occupants until c.1926 (with most staying for around 1-4 years), which suggests that it was primarily used as a rental property. A review of the Post Office Directories at around 5-yearly intervals (together with reference to contemporary Electoral Rolls) indicates that some of the primary residents during this period included:  1901: Frederick W Cox and/or Arthur W Fletcher  1906: Alfred Willcox Plummer (auditor)  1910: Robert McGregor (traveller)  1915: Henry Joseph Maher (labourer)  1920: Andrew Kett (soldier)  1925: John Robert Sharman (gardener) A brief newspaper notice in February 1925 stated that ‘A. Truscott’ had sold his house at 115 Bagot Road. By 1927 it had been occupied as the long-term home of the Dear family and Frank Dear was identified as the owner in the Rate Books from at least 1929-1930 (noting that other Rate Books from the 1920s are not available). Frank Reginald Dear (c.1882-1981) and Marjorie Emma Lewis (c.1882-1975) were married in the district of Williams in c.1914 and had at least one child, Robert Frank (‘Bob’)(born 1919). By 1927 Frank (a former bricklayer) was working as a civil servant in the position of inspector of scaffolding and newspaper articles confirm that he was still in this job in the early 1940s. Frank was still listed at 115 Bagot Road in the Electoral Rolls of 1980. The current house has a weatherboard skirt, with flat sheet fibrous cement cladding to the upper walls. While the use of asbestos became very popular in the late inter-war and early post-WWII period, it was already being promoted as a durable and fire resistant building product during the early Post-WWI period (when products like Wunderlich Durasbestos came onto the Perth market). As the chimney is consistent with the early twentieth century it seems likely that the original, timber-framed house was reclad by the Dear family (date not determined). An analysis of a historical Metropolitan Sewerage Plan (revised March 1927) and historical aerial photographs suggests that major extensions were made at the rear of the house in the mid 1980s. The footprint of the front portion has remained relatively unchanged.

Integrity/Authenticity

The authenticity of the house within its streetscape setting (as defined in the inter-war era) has been reduced by alterations to the verandah detailing.

Condition

Based on a streetscape inspection the buildings appear to be in a good condition.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

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