House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

For information on the significance of the Union and Redfern Heritage Area refer to the Local Planning Policy for the Heritage Area.

Physical Description

7 Union Street was designed as a modest suburban house, partly influenced by the Federation Bungalow style. Key elements include: Symmetrical façade, accentuated by the hipped roof, a small centrally placed gable (over the main entrance) and tall brick chimneys. Tuck-pointed brickwork to the main façade with two contrasting rendered string courses – one at window sill height and the other at door head height. Hipped roof with a short, north-south ridge line. This is clad with terracotta tiles and, as noted above, features a small decorative gable over the front door. This gable has a rough-cast rendered face divided by three vertical battens. Two tall, face brick chimneys with rendered, moulded detailing to the cornice and cap. Front verandah. This covers the full width of the main façade and has been extended to the south as part of a late twentieth century carport. The roof of the verandah extends in a continuous broken-back alignment from the main roofline. At the northern end it retains a traditional boarded end panel. It is supported on half-height, paired square timber posts set on stone plinths with face brick caps (dating from modern conservation works). Triple casement windows with square ripple-glass highlights, chamfered timber mullions and a raked rendered sill to each of the two front rooms. Below each window there is a large, curved, stucco under-sill panel. Centrally located door with highlights and narrow high-waisted sidelights – all with stained glass panels with varied floral and cable motifs. The house is set back approximately 4m from the front boundary, which is defined by a low limestone wall, with tall limestone block piers (all capped with vertical bricks) and metal, spear-topped, infill panels. On the southern side of the block a driveway leads to the carport addition.

History

Perth Suburban Lot 255 was purchased by the Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company Ltd of Sydney in August 1890. Two years later it was transferred to James Chesters of 155 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, estate agent, and by 1894 Chesters had subdivided this land as Deposited Plan 899, with 42 lots laid out around Queen Street (soon renamed Union Street). The allotments to the west of Union Street were numbered 1 to 21, with four of these facing Hamersley Road (Lots 1 to 4) and four facing Heytesbury Road (Lots 18 to 21). An early subdivision plan showed 13 lots facing Queen Street but, prior to sale, these were re-subdivided as nine slightly wider lots (Lots 5 to 13 on Diagram 4432). According to the City of Subiaco Rates Books a house was built on Lot 6 for Mrs G Kenworthy in 1915/16, and the property had been transferred to a Mrs S Smith by 1918/19. However ownership was not officially transferred from James Chesters until 1921, when a new Certificate of Title was issued in the name of Ann Cottrell. The house on this lot appears to have been built to the same (or a very similar) design as 2 Union Street and it is highly likely that Chesters had built both houses as part of the speculative development he is known to have undertaken in various parts of his Subiaco subdivisions in the period c.1907-1916. Based on other similar cases, it is also likely that he had taken a deposit, with full payment to be received in instalments, but that the initial purchaser(s) had moved on before finalising the transaction. In 1917, William Kenworthy was the first resident to be listed at this address in the Post Office Directories. William (a clerk) lived here with his wife, Grace, and their only daughter, Mollie, but moved away after Mollie’s death in April 1919 – when the house was placed on the market: FIRST-CLASS Brick House for Sale. 5 rooms, conveniences. Full particulars Owner. 7 Union-st. Subiaco. The first long-term occupant was Mrs Annie Cottrell, who acquired the property in November 1921 - possibly investing some of the £1,812 she inherited following the death of one of her sons, Robert Arthur Cottrell of Dowerin, in 1920. She then remained here until her death in January 1942, aged 84 years. After Annie Cottrell’s death, 7 Union Street was occupied by Sydney Harvey, his wife, Dorothy (Dolly) and their two young children. From 1938, and through until at least the 1950s, S. M. Harvey was advertising as a jeweller and watchmaker, with business premises on the first floor of the Plaza Arcade, Perth. Sydney lived at 7 Union Street until the late 1960s and Dorothy was still listed at this address in the Electoral Roll of 1982. Historical aerial photographs indicate that in the period 1985 to 1995 the front of the house was extended towards the southern boundary with a carport addition (as an extension of the main roofline). Major additions have also been made at the rear of the house over time.

Condition

Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in a good condition.

Uses

Creation Date

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