House

Parent Place or Precinct

25376 Duke Street Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The Duke Street Heritage Area is of: Aesthetic Value • Duke Street has a distinctive urban character that has been primarily created by the local road closure and public landscaping of the late twentieth century. • Within this setting the heritage character is derived from the modest, single, storey suburban houses dating from the Federation and early Inter-War era (c.1902-1924). Only one of these houses has been replaced (#3, c.1980s) and the defined period and nature of development has resulted in a complementary palette of materials and design idioms. Historic Value • The subdivision of this area was undertaken by the Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company of Sydney. This represents part of a much wider role that this company took in the development of Subiaco in the 1890s and early 1900s. • The collection of houses in the study area helps to demonstrate the scale and standard of houses built and occupied by people such as small business owners, clerks and tradesmen in the early twentieth century. • The study area was generally the place of residence for people who left only a small mark on the written records. However, it also accommodated at least two men who were prominent in the local community or were otherwise public identities of the early to mid twentieth century (see Associations - Residents, below). Representativeness • The study area includes a good representative collection of modest early twentieth century brick and timber housing developed in close proximity to the Rokeby Road tramway.

Physical Description

5 Duke Street is a standard early Inter-War era suburban house decorated with elements loosely derived from the California Bungalow style. Key elements include: • Asymmetrical plan, with prominent north and east facing wings linked by a large corner verandah. • Tuck-pointed face-brick skirt to the main façades, capped by a projecting brick stringcourse at mid-wall height. Above this level the walls are roughcast rendered. • Gabled-hipped roof clad with terracotta tiles. • Low chimneys set towards the rear of the house. • Timber-framed, roughcast rendered gables to the projecting wings, each featuring a set 6 brick vents framed in the style of a popular Inter-War architrave. The sides of this frame taper towards the top and are capped by a shallow triangular head, which projects beyond the sides. Below each gable there is a raked, tiled awning set over a bank of four casement windows with a projecting rendered sill. • Corner verandah. This is set under a raked roof, which extends in a broken-back alignment from the main roofline. The raked roof is supported on pairs of square timber posts with decorative timber panels linking the top of each pair. These posts are, in turn, supported on robust roughcast rendered piers. Between these piers the verandah is semi-enclosed by a half-height face brick wall with a rendered cap. • Under the verandah the façade steps back twice, with the main entrance at the first setback. This features a typical high-waisted Inter-War style door, flanked by a single sidelight, with highlights over. At the second setback French doors open onto the verandah from the side wing. The house is set back approximately 5m from the front boundary, which is defined by a scalloped timber picket fence.

History

A Certificate of Title for Perth Suburban Lot 277 and part Perth Suburban Lot 276 (totalling 5 acres and 18 perches) was issued in the name of The Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company Ltd on 18 September 1901. This area was subsequently laid out as a new subdivision, including ten building allotments facing Duke Street (Lots 13 to 17 and 18 to 22 of Plan 2352). In 1903 the Subiaco Rates Books listed the owner of Lots 21 and 22 as A.Hodgkinson, at which time the site was still vacant. A house, occupied by Ada Hodgkinson (widow), had been built on Lot 21 (3 Duke Street) by 1905, but it was not until 23 October 1906 that the title for Lots 21 and 22 was transferred into her name. The double block was offered for sale in 1921: TO Builders, Small Cottage, 4 rooms, sleep-out, etc., frontage 40ft. and block 40ft. adjoining, £550, terms. 3 Duke-st, Subiaco. The first listing for 5 Duke Street in the Post Office Directories was in 1925, when a new house had been occupied by George John Sawyer (salesman) and his wife, Georgina (nee Girvan). George had served with the armed forces in France during WWI and information provided by a former neighbour of the Sawyer family notes that the house was built with the assistance of a War Service loan. George and Georgina (who had married in 1923) had three children who grew up in this house - John, Betty and William (Bill). George died on 15 June 1947 (aged 50 years) and at that time it was reported that he was a former employee of the Singer Sewing Machine Company - which explains the many newspaper advertisements for sewing machines that reference this address in the period June 1925 until January 1947. Georgina remained in the house with her son, Bill, until about the time of her death in 1980.

Integrity/Authenticity

The external character, finishes and detailing of this place appear to be largely consistent with its original design.

Condition

Good

Uses

Creation Date

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