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

129 Heytesbury Road was designed in the Federation Queen Anne style. Key elements include the: • Asymmetrical façade. • Gable-hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. This has a high hipped roof over the central part of the house, with a louvered gablet vent facing the street. Prominent gable ends extend over two projecting wings, one on the eastern side of the main façade and the other part way along the eastern side of the house. Both of these gables have a roughcast rendered face and a centrally located stucco detail of a ‘shield’ flanked by acanthus leaves. These gables have retained a high degree of authenticity, including shaped barge boards, rolled facing to the roof sheeting, timber scotias, battened eaves and moulded timber trim under the base plate. • Two face-brick chimneys, each with a projecting rendered cap and terracotta pots. • Tuck-pointed brick walls with two plain rendered string courses – one at window sill height and the other at door head height. • Bullnose verandah roof, extending across the main façade and returning part-way along the eastern side of the house (where it abuts the side wing). This has square-baluster frieze panels and shaped timber posts (with deep chamfers, grooved detailing and turned timber elements). At the eastern end of the main façade, the deeper section of the verandah (adjacent to the projecting wing) has been enclosed with flush panel sheeting and aluminium framed windows. Other parts of the verandah have been variously framed by a pipe rail and wire mesh balustrade (front), a timber lattice balustrade (part east side) and plastic mesh (part east side). Canvas awnings have also been added along both sides. • Main entrance opening off the eastern wall of the house, at the end of the side verandah. This has traditional highlights and narrow sidelights • Full-height double hung window, flanked by half-height sidelights, opening onto the side verandah from the side wing. • Full-height double hung window, flanked by half-height sidelights, opening onto the front verandah under the gable. The sidelights have small-paned leadlight glazing and projecting rendered sills. The house is set approximately 5.2m back from the front boundary, which is defined by a low rendered masonry wall, with high rendered masonry posts and open, steel infill panels. The wide side yard provides a setback of approximately 9m from the eastern boundary, which creates a spacious garden setting for the house. Near the north-east corner of the site there is a simple timber framed, flat roofed carport.

History

On 13 March 1883, the Western Australian government announced it would survey a section of the Perth commonage into suburban lots and that these would then be made available for private sale. Perth Suburban Lot 274 appears to have initially been subdivided as Deposited Plan 2405 with a one-acre lot on the SE corner of Heytesbury and Hensman Roads designated as lot 1. This had been sold to James Chesters (a local land developer) by March 1904, and was later included as part of a residential subdivision under Deposited Plan 3758 (part of which formed 115-135 Heytesbury road). Lot 37 of DP 3758 was transferred to Harry Pratt (a railways signalman) in March 1914, and in March 1918 he also acquired the adjacent Part Lot 32. The first entry for this address in the Post Office Directories dates from 1917, but Harry was already listed here in the Electoral Roll of 1916, which suggests that the house was built in c.1915-1916. Other adults listed at this address in 1916 included Harry’s wife, Maud Mary Pratt (nee Casey), William Pratt (railway porter)(possibly Harry’s father or brother) and Mrs Mary Elizabeth Casey (Maud’s mother). The Pratt’s remained here until 1920 and during this period the house was also occupied by their three young daughters, Ida, Phyllis and Jean (the youngest of whom was born in 1917). The Pratt family had moved away by August 1920, when 129 Heytesbury Road was given as the address of newly-weds, Joseph Stephenson (a company manager) and Kathleen Henrietta Hodge. Two children were born here over the next few years, a son in 1921 and a daughter in 1923. After the Stephenson’s moved to Claremont in the late 1920s, 129 Heytesbury Road became the long-term family home of Frank Ellis (a clerk/cashier), who had been married in July 1921 and had three young children. Frank and Ella remained here until around the time of their deaths in 1962 and 1970, respectively. After that time the house continued to be occupied by one of their daughters, Barbara (a nurse). A comparison of current and historical aerial photographs (the earliest of which is dated 1948) shows that the building envelope at the front of the house has remained largely the same. A freestanding garage/carport was built on the eastern side of the wide block in the 1970s.

Integrity/Authenticity

Note: The original external detailing of the building is largely intact and/or sympathetically restored/renovated, and the place has been well maintained (acknowledging that the western end of the front verandah has been enclosed and later balustrades added).

Condition

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

Uses

Creation Date

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