Jones House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: • For its aesthetic value as a particularly fine example of a well-designed Federation Queen Anne villa of the early twentieth century, designed to a style and scale suited to the professional/business classes. • For its aesthetic and historic value as a largely intact building that has been well maintained and/or sympathetically restored/extended. • For its historic value as a demonstration of the period in which Subiaco underwent rapid development in the early 20th century. • For its aesthetic contribution to a largely intact streetscape of early twentieth century houses. • For its historical and aesthetic values as an example of the residential work of Edgar Jerome Henderson, architect.

Physical Description

117 Heytesbury Road is a single storey face brick dwelling with a corrugated steel hip roof designed in the Federation Queen Anne style of architecture. The residence has a symmetrical form with two ridge gablets and two face brick and rendered chimneys with terracotta pots. A corrugated steel bullnose verandah extends across the front façade with a central projecting gable over the main entrance. The gable end has half-timbered panelling with a rough rendered infill and features a timber barge board with carved timber ‘buttons’ at either ends. The verandah is supported by pairs of turned-timber posts. Between each pair there is a ‘cross curve and circle’ timber detailing which continues to form a curved timber valance. The external walls are tuckpointed brick with a rendered string course at head height and a rendered plinth. The entry door is timber framed with three panels of stained-glass glazing. The door is surrounded by highlights and sidelights. Full-height double hung windows flank the entry doors. Each of these windows has a moulded panel at the base and is flanked by narrow sidelights, with low-waisted bottom panels. The front yard is well maintained featuring a large frangipani tree and other low-lying shrubs with a central paved pathway leading towards the house. The front yard is enclosed by a painted brick pier fence with spiked steel infill and a central steel gate. A mature verge tree partially obscures the dwelling from the street. An addition to the rear in the late 20th century features a tall face brick chimney which is visible along the west elevation. The place is serviced by a rear laneway.

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 south-east 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). 117 Heytesbury Road appears to have been built in anticipation of the marriage of Bowen Burke Matthew Jones (1887-1950) to Edith May Geddes-Stubbs (1889-1985), which took place on 2 August 1913. Bowen was the son of John and Elizabeth Jones, who are believed to have built the first house in Subiaco in 1886. Edith was the daughter of William and Alice Geddes and the step-daughter of Bartholomew James Stubbs (M.L.A.). Lot 36 on Diagram 3758, Perth Suburban Lot 274 (117 Heytesbury Road) was officially acquired by Bowen Jones (clerk) on 1 April 1913, but he had already commissioned Edgar Jerome Henderson, architect, to design a house for this site by March of that year: TENDERS are invited for the ERECTION of a BRICK VILLA RESIDENCE, Heytesbury road, Subiaco, for B. Jones, Esq. No tender necessarily accepted. A deposit of £25 must accompany tender. EDGAR J. HENDERSON and SON, Architects, Sun Insurance Buildings, 70 St. George’s-terrace. Note: Residential work undertaken by Henderson during 1908-1914 also included projects at 23 Coolgardie Street, Subiaco (extant); 434 Newcastle St, West Perth (demolished); 147 Beaufort Street, Perth (demolished); and a residence in St Georges Terrace, Perth. Other buildings designed by Henderson in Subiaco include the former St Aloysius' Convent School-Church, 21 Henry Street, Shenton Park (extant). In May 1913 the property was mortgaged to the Workers Homes Board to secure £550, and Mrs Jones later recalled: We put a deposit on a workers' home and paid 15s per week and reared a family of eight. At 4 pounds a week we had no luxury. A number of sources claim that this was the first house constructed under the Workers Homes Act of 1911, but the following confirms that the construction of at least one other residence had been commenced in Subiaco under this scheme by August 1912: An interested little group of spectators gathered around the foundations, of a villa residence in Hensman-road, Subiaco, yesterday afternoon, when the Premier (Mr. Scaddan) placed in position the first brick of a residence that is being erected under the provisions of the Workers' Homes Act. While not the initial undertaking of its kind under this measure, it is one of the early evidences of the Government's operations in this connection. Another newspaper article in September 1912 stated that 19 Workers Homes Board loans had already been approved for the construction of new houses. Therefore, while 117 Heytesbury Road was an early example of a house funded under the Workers Homes Act of 1911, it was by no means the first in either the state or in Subiaco. Bowen and Edith Jones had seven children who survived infancy: Mary Josephine (Molly) (born 1915), Sheila Elizabeth (Betty), Nancy Alicia, James Brian, Kevin Francis, Margaret Cecelia (Peggy) and Peter John Leon – all of whom grew up in this house. Bowen Jones died in his early 60s in August 1950: The friends of the late Mr. Bowen Burke Jones of 117 Heytesbury-rd., Subiaco, and of the Swan Brewery, Perth, are respectfully invited to follow his remains to the place of interment, the Roman Catholic Cemetery, Karrakatta. Edith Jones then remained at 117 Heytesbury Road until the house was sold in 1981. A photograph dating from about that time shows the house in a dilapidated condition.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity - High Authenticity - High

Condition

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

Uses

Creation Date

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