House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Physical Description

18 Union Street was designed as a modest, single storey Federation Queen Anne house. It was constructed with tuck-pointed face-brick to the main façade (now painted), with two plain rendered string courses – one at window sill height and the other at door head height. The gabled-hipped roof is clad with corrugated metal sheeting and features louvered gablet vents at either end of the main east-west ridgeline, tall painted brick chimneys with projecting rendered caps, and a prominent street front gable. The gable end extends over a shallow rectangular window bay, and features a roughcast rendered face, turned timber finial and decorative timber battens. Between the gable and verandah roof, the form of the window bay is accentuated by the roughcast rendered finish to the walls and the deep battened eaves on either side The window bay is located at the centre of a projecting wing on the southern side of the main façade. This wing has a triple casement window set over a projecting rendered sill with a decorative under-sill panel. The front verandah, which extends across the full width of the house, has a dropped bullnose roof, turned timber posts and carved timber brackets. The main entrance to the house is located under the verandah, adjacent to the projecting wing. This has a 5-panel door, moulded timber architraves, highlight and single sidelight. To the north of this there is a pair of double hung windows with sills and under-sill panels similar to the window to the projecting wing. The house is set back approximately 5m from the front boundary, which is defined by a scalloped timber picket fence, backed by a low clipped hedge. Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in good condition.

History

Perth Suburban Lot 255 was purchased by the Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company Ltd of Sydney in August 1890. Two years later it was transferred to James Chesters of 155 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, estate agent. By 1894 Chesters had subdivided this land as Deposited Plan 899, with 42 lots laid out around Queen Street (soon renamed Union Street). Chesters sold part Lot 28 and Lot 29 to Minnie Bourne in March 1911. Minnie and her husband Walter had previously built a house at 143 Hamersley Road in 1910, and lived there in 1910-11, while advertising it for sale. They then appear to have repeated this exercise at 18 Union Street, offering this for sale in 1912, and living there in 1912-13. WALK-In walk-out principle, Bijou Villa, 6 rooms, conveniences, £675, furniture. Schwechten piano optional. 18 Union-st., Subiaco. (August 1912) The Bourne family then rented the house at 84 Heytesbury Road (1914) before moving to York Street (1915) and then Forest Avenue (1916). The Subiaco Rates Books for 1912/13 indicate that 18 Union Street was acquired by Sydney Stevens (civil servant), who settled here with his wife Janet. It then went through three further changes of ownership in relatively quick succession: • Charles Owen (optician) – owner/occupier c.1917-1923; • Henry Holley (school teacher) - owner/occupier c.1924-June 1927; and • Muriel Glaskin - owner/occupier from 1928-c.1944 At various times in the period 1928 to 1944, Muriel Glaskin shared the house with one or more of her children - Evelyn (born 1906), Harold (a clerk)(born 1910) and Ronald (a linotype operator)(born 1913). During this time it appears that her husband, Frederick, was living in Victoria. The next long term occupants were Frederick and Lucy Gunning and their daughter, Ruth, who had settled here after Frederick’s retirement as an Anglican clergyman in the early 1950s. An advertisement dated 1953 also identified Frederick as the author of a history of the Gascoyne Pioneers, titled: Lure of the North. Occupants of the property from its time of construction until c.1980 included: 1912-1913 Walter Howard Bourne, compositor 1913-1916 Sydney Robert Percy Stevens, civil servant (Commonwealth Weather Bureau) 1917-1923 Charles Arthur Owen, optician 1924-1927 Henry Albert Holley, schoolmaster 1928-1944 Mrs Muriel Isabell Glaskin 1945-1946 Len Turney 1947-c.1949 John Grenville Picton-Warlow (law student, graduated c.1950) c.1954-c.1964 Frederick William Gunning, retired Anglican clergyman c.1953-post 1980 Lucy May Gunning (home duties) and Ruth Agnes Gunning (machinist)

Integrity/Authenticity

Note: The painting of the main façade has impacted on the authenticity and traditional character of the place. However, the underlying form and detailing remains consistent with the original design and the key elements of the traditional streetscape.

Condition

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

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update