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

10 Duke Street is a simple, single storey, early post-WWI suburban residence which does not clearly represent any of the major architectural styles. Key elements include: • A prominent gabled wing on the western side of the main façade and a deep porch on the eastern side. • Roughcast rendered walls to the main façade and painted face brick walls to the sides. Note: The change to the texture of the render below window sill height suggests that the house may have originally had a contrasting face-brick skirt across the base of the main façade (which would have been consistent with the design). However, this may also simply reflect repairs to the lower sections to the wall. • Gabled-hipped roof clad with clay tiles. This roof extends in a broken back alignment over the front porch. The leading edge then extends partway across the face of the gabled wing, forming a raked awning over the front windows. • Single, rough-cast rendered, chimney towards the rear of the house. • Wide gable over the projecting wing, decorated with vertical timber battens. • Deep front porch with the entrance framed by a pair of low, face-brick walls (now painted). These walls support square timber verandah posts, which are paired in a simple geometric design. • Set of three casement windows to the projecting wing, set over a moulded and rendered sill. • Set of three casement windows facing onto the front porch, set in a plain rectangular opening (with no moulded sill). The house is set back approximately 4.5m from the front boundary, which is defined by a low, rusticated-stone wall (now painted). Unlike the other houses along this side of the street this incorporates a driveway entrance, which leads to a flat-roofed carport abutting the eastern side of the house.

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). On 16 July 1902, Lot 16 was transferred to Frederick Samuel Herbert Tipping - who had also purchased the Lot 15 (adjoining) in May 1902. Frederick, who had married Blanche Eleanor Allen in that year, built a house on lot 15 (#8) and lived there until c.1915, when the family moved to Gosnells. The first entry for 10 Duke Street in the Post Office Directories dates from 1918, when a Richard Lynas was listed at this address. The house was listed as ‘vacant’ for the next two years, occupied together with #8 by Harry Hunt in 1921 and then not listed at all in 1922. It is not clear what was happening on the site during that period but, from c.1923, 10 Duke Street became the long-term family home of Hurbert Stanlake Trotman and his wife, Ellen Maude Trotman (nee Nankivell). At that time their children, Cyril, Hilda and Gladys, were 22, 19 and 10 years old respectively and the younger two, at least, lived here with their parents for some time. Hubert Trotman had settled in Perth after taking up the position of Chief Land Tax Assessor for the Taxation Department in WA in 1921, prior to which he had worked for a number of years as a district inspector in farming areas for the Lands Department. In his younger days (in the period 1894-1910) Trotman had participated in a number of exploration and survey expeditions into the interior of the state, commencing with a Government survey of the area between Coolgardie to Mount Magnet (when he was 19 years old). Other expeditions included the 1902 survey of the Rabbit Proof Fence and the 1906 Canning survey of a stock route from Wiluna to Halls Creek (on which he was appointed second in command). Trotman retired from the Taxation Department in 1933, at which time it was announced that he planned to undertake “an extensive holiday in Europe”. Ellen Trotman died in June 1950 and Hurbert had left 10 Duke Street prior to 1958. Occupants of the property from its time of construction until the early to mid 1950s included: 1918 Richard Lynas, clerk 1919-1920 Vacant 1921 Harry Hunt (shown for 8-10 Duke Street) 1922 - 1923-pre-1958 Hurbert Stanlake Trotman, Chief Land Tax Assessor, Taxation Department (retiring in 1933)

Integrity/Authenticity

Some elements have been modified as part of ongoing maintenance and conservation, but the underlying design as a modest, post-WWI house is still clearly recognisable.

Condition

Good

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

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