Plunkett Home

Statement of Significance

The place is a good example of the Federation Bungalow style of architecture, contributing to the Wright Street landscape. The place has historic value through its long and continual association with the Plunkett family, as it was their family home and in close proximity to the site of the original Plunkett Joinery. The Plunkett Homes business played a significant role in the development of Perth’s housing construction and design.

Physical Description

The brick and iron dwelling at No. 111 Wright Street was built circa 1910 and is a good example of the Federation Bungalow style. The dwelling has a hipped roof form and features a street facing protruding gable. The gable wall is in filled with roughcast and timber battens. The dwelling has a single room street frontage and a recessed side entrance. The front room is surrounded by a deep verandah, which is an extension of the main roof form. The verandah is supported by timber posts, which are adorned with decorative timber brackets. The facade of the building is exposed brickwork with two prominent string courses runningn its length. There are two pairs of timber framed sash windows, with decorative plaster sill details, on the street facing wall of the facade. The dwelling is located within the portion of Wright Street between Broome and Harold Streets in Highgate. Set back approximately 8.5 metres from its front boundary the dwelling has a large garden area with several plantings. To the south of the dwelling there is a large paved area.

History

The place at No. 111 Wright Street in Highgate was constructed circa 1905 and has held a continual association with the Plunkett family. The subject property first appears in the Wise's Post Office Directories in 1906 with Thomas Scott Plunkett as resident, however no street number was allocated. The street number of the subject place has been changed several times over the years. It is listed as No. 65 in 1907, No. 107 in 1908 and No. 111 in 1916. T. S. Plunkett remains as resident of the subject dwelling until 1934 when his son Charles H. Plunkett appears as resident until at least 1949. A Metropolitan Water Supply Sewerage & Drainage Department (MWSSD) Plan dated 1953 illustrates that a front verandah wrapped around the south, east and north frontage and a verandah and an asbestos addition were constructed at the rear of the house. A brick and asbestos outbuilding was erected to the west of the subject place. Thomas Scott Plunkett was a carpenter and established his family company, T.S Plunkett builders in 1903, which involved his son Charles and grandson also called Thomas. The Plunkett's established '˜Plunkett's Joinery' at Nos. 98 - 102 Smith Street in close proximity to the family home in Wright Street in which the Wise's Post Office Directories indicates that it began operation circa 1913. The Joinery remained operational until the 1980s when it was demolished and the land was converted for residential purposes. The Plunkett family building company has become a household name in Western Australia since its early beginnings. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the Plunkett Building Company played a key role in the residential development of Mount Hawthorn and North Perth, together with other suburbs outside the Town of Vincent including Claremont, Nedlands, Melville and Woodlands. After World War Two the company built many War Service and Worker's Home Board houses in Mount Hawthorn. They also built the Coronado Hotel in late 1940; also known as the Highway Hotel in Claremont, which was designed by Reginald Summerhayes and Marshall Clinton. By the 1950s Plunkett's had opened their own timber mills, joinery and brickworks and as such had developed the capacity to build about 1000 homes per year. The Plunkett Building Company is attributed as the first company to introduce the first gas appliances to Display Homes in 1964 and Western Australia's first Display Home with a pergola in 1973. The company is now called Plunkett Homes. The subject place is on the Heritage Council of Western Australia Assessment Program.

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