House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The place has aesthetic significance as a good example of the architectural style typical of the area and period. It has historic significance reflecting the development and settlement of the area. For information on the significance of the Union and Redfern Heritage Area refer to the Local Planning Policy for the Heritage Area.

Physical Description

113 Heytesbury Road was designed as a simple suburban house, without any overt references to the major architectural styles of the period. Key elements include the: • Symmetrical façade. • Hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. This has an east-west ridgeline with what would have originally been louvered gablets at either end of the ridge. • Pair of painted brick chimneys with projecting rendered caps. • Painted brick walls with clear evidence that they were originally tuck-pointed face-brick. • Plain rendered stringcourse at window sill height. • Full-width, raked verandah, with turned timber posts and an arched timber frieze. • Centrally located entrance door, with narrow sidelights fitted with ripple glass. • Set of triple casement windows opening onto the verandah from the rooms on either side of the main entrance. Each of these has a rectangular projecting sill set over a curved under-sill panel. The house is set approximately 6m back from the front boundary, which is defined by a timber picket fence. Two mature citrus trees and other large shrubs in the front yard largely conceal the front façade from casual streetscape views. On the western side of the front yard there is a pipe rail fame with a translucent plastic sheeting that forms a carport and provides a frame for a mature wisteria vine.

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 275 was purchased by the Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company Ltd of Sydney in August 1890. By August 1891 the company had subdivided this land as Deposited Plan 374, with 30 lots laid out around Union Street. Lots 1 to 3 of this subdivision (which were later developed as 109 to 113 Heytesbury Road) were sold to John Lowe of Toowoomba, Queensland, in June 1892, but remained as vacant land until the early twentieth century. The next owner, Florence Edgcumbe of Perth, sold the lots individually in the period 1899 to 1905, with Lot 1 being transferred to Mary Isabella Halkett-Hay in June 1905. Information in the Subiaco Rates Books indicates that the house was built during that year for Mary and her husband, John Halkett-Hay (an accountant) who had moved to Western Australia shorty after their marriage in Queensland in 1902. They remained here until c.1913 and their son, Colin, was born at ‘Balendoch’ (which is the name they gave to the house) in 1910. In 1913 the family moved to Albany and 113 Heytesbury Road was placed on the market: FOR SALE, Heytesbury-road, Subiaco, Villa, 4 rooms, bath, pantry, washhouse, copper and tubs, vestibule, back and front verandah, electric light, lawns, garden, etc. Apply 113 Heytesbury-rd. The house may have then been used as a rental property, as the occupants changed at least every one-two years until 1933. 113 Heytesbury Road then became the long-term home of Arnold Owen Holst, a dentist, who had previously worked in the Goldfields and Geraldton regions (advertising as a ‘chemist and surgeon dentist’ in the former from as early as 1899). Arnold and his wife, Phoebe, lived here until around the time of their deaths in 1949 and 1941, respectively – sharing the house for at least part of that time with their daughter, Jean (born 1919) and possibly with their son, Alan (born 1915). A comparison of current and historical aerial photographs (the earliest clear image dated 1965) suggest that the building envelope at the front of the house has remained largely the same, with the exception of a carport at the front of the house (originally added in this location in the 1960s). Over time, additions have been made to the rear of the house, including major works in c.1980.

Condition

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

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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