House

Parent Place or Precinct

24365 West Subiaco Conservation Area

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: • As a representative example of a well designed and detailed bungalow of Subiaco dating from the early twentieth century. For its historical value and connection as a conjoined residence of a former private maternity hospital which illustrated the transition from an unregulated cottage industry to a government-managed profession under legislation that required any commercially operated lying-in home to be licenced (State Children’s Act, 1907) • The place has historical value arising from its association with two women (Minnie Lloyd and Louise Elizabeth Reid) who established themselves in business as the owner/managers of private hospitals in an era when nursing was one of the relatively few ‘respectable’ professions commonly available to women. • For its historic value as a demonstration of the period in which Subiaco underwent rapid development in the early 20th century.

Physical Description

19 Coolgardie Street is a single storey painted brick dwelling with a corrugated steel hip and gable roof displaying characteristics of the Federation Bungalow style of architecture with a two-storey addition at the rear. The residence abuts the adjacent building sharing the southern wall. The residence has an asymmetrical form with a projecting bay addressing the street. The roof has a painted brick and rendered chimney with terracotta pots. The projecting bay has a half-timbered gable with roughcast rendered infill. A corrugated steel skillion verandah extends along the recessed portion of the front facade. The verandah is supported by tapered concrete half posts atop rendered masonry posts. The external walls are painted brick with a rendered plinth. The entry door is timber framed with highlights and a sidelight. A timber framed French door with highlights is located within the verandah. Within the projecting bay is a wide aluminium framed sliding window with a fixed double highlight and a steel security screen. The window has a projecting moulded sill with a decorative under-sill panel. Above the window is a corrugated steel awning with a simple timber valance and decorative corner brackets. The place is enclosed to the front by a timber picket fence with a central timber picket gate. The front yard is predominately a grass area.. Two jacarandas are planted along the verge which partially obscure the dwelling from the street. The place is serviced by a rear laneway.

History

Coolgardie Street was one of the first two streets occupied in West Subiaco, with two residents noted in 1897. It was created by the subdivision of Perth Lot 276 into 42 residential lots. By 1901, seven houses were listed, which grew to twelve by 1905, 18 by 1910 and through to 1920, and 23 (almost all the available lots) in 1930. Street numbers are first given in Post Office Directory listings in 1906, at which time Percil R. W. Streat is listed at 19 Coolgardie Street. Streat was listed in the street from 1904. As numbers are not given, it is difficult to discern whether he was the first occupant at the address. However, in 1901 and 1902 George E. Lohr seems to be listed in the same location, followed by John Hart in 1903. Only names, not addresses, are listed in Subiaco prior to 1901, but George Lohr is not listed as resident in Subiaco in 1900. A c.1903 plan shows up to six small residences in Coolgardie Street, but probably nothing at 19 Coolgardie Street. Recent real estate advertisements claim the place was constructed in 1904. A construction date between 1901 and 1904 appears most likely. Percil Streat remained at 19 Coolgardie Street until 1910. Occupants changed several times before William and Minnie Lloyd were listed at the place, from 1917. Mary Anne (Minnie) Lloyd and her husband William Lloyd were property developers in Subiaco from 1902 but became bankrupt in 1906. After selling a large portfolio of properties, they apparently cleared their debts. Minnie Lloyd established a ‘lying in’ (maternity) home known as Hawaii at 23 Coolgardie Street in 1908. Ruby Lloyd had purchased 23 Coolgardie Street in 1908 and then transferred it to her mother Mary Anne (Minnie) Lloyd later the same year. This was a period when regulation and accreditation was introduced for private maternity services. Minnie Lloyd purchased 19 Coolgardie Street (Lot 7 on Deposited Plan 974) in 1918. The residence was subsequently, for many years, in the same ownership as the maternity hospital immediately south, 23 Coolgardie Street. The Lloyd family had earlier lived at the maternity home but appear to have moved into the residence at 19 Coolgardie Street after this time. From 1917 to 1920, 19 Coolgardie Street was not separately listed in the Post Office Directories. William Lloyd and Mrs Lloyd were listed as two separate entries at 23 Coolgardie Street, suggesting the Lloyds lived at 19 Coolgardie St as part of running the maternity hospital. From 1921, 19 Coolgardie Street is again listed separately, occupied by John Reddin (to 1922) then James F. Reid (to 1925). Minnie Lloyd died in 1924, aged 63. Research into her maternity home claims 19 Coolgardie Street was subsequently occupied by her sons Clifton and Lyle. However, Post Office Directories lists a Clifford Lloyd (assumed to be referring to Clifton) at 23 Coolgardie Street only, in 1925. By April 1925, the maternity home was being run by Mary Louisa Collins, who purchased both 19 and 23 Coolgardie Street. Mary had been a nurse on the goldfields during the 1890s typhoid epidemic. Her daughter, Louise Reid, was also a trained nurse. She took up management of the Coolgardie Street facility in 1925, after which it was known as Nurse Reid’s Private Hospital or Narrabeen Hospital. Ownership transferred from Mary Collins to Louise Elizabeth Reid in 1928. Louise had separated from her husband Ivor Reid. In c.1930, she married Arthur Colin Victor Kildahl, motor mechanic, but she continued to practice professionally as Nurse Reid. The maternity home continued to operate until 1937, but in later years the Kildahl family moved to West Perth and no longer resided at Coolgardie Street. A sewerage plan from 1926 shows a brick residence with a verandah across the north half of the front (east) elevation and a projecting bay to the south of this. The south wall of the residence appears to be a party wall with the neighbouring 23 Coolgardie Street (a residence constructed over two lots). Several small timber structures extend to the rear (west) of 19 Coolgardie Street, including a verandah and a bathroom. A large free-standing building west of the house is marked as being constructed of timber and glass. A laundry and two toilets abut the laneway at the rear (west) of the lot. Part of the rear yard is marked as ‘vines’. The residence as depicted predominantly matches the extant building. Louise Reid/ Kildahl appears to have rented out 19 Coolgardie Street through the 1920s, as Post Office Directories list a number of different occupants. From 1930,Colin A.V. Kildahl is listed as resident at 19 Coolgardie Street and in subsequent years both 19 and 23 are listed together as Narrabeen Hospital, with L.E. Reid as principal. After the maternity home closed, 19 Coolgardie Street was occupied by Walter Carpenter from 1938 to at least 1954. Electoral Rolls list him as a gardener or carpenter and sometimes have his address as 23 rather than 19 Coolgardie Street. Hester Lorena Carpenter is also listed as resident at either 19 or 23 Coolgardie Street from 1937 to at least 1954. She is listed as a group settler at Nuralingup in 1925, along with her husband Charles Walter Carpenter. Hester died in 1958, at Armadale, aged 89. Louise Kildahl continued to own 19 Coolgardie Street at her death in 1951. It was transferred in April 1953 to Alice Dean of West Perth, widow, together with the adjacent former maternity hospital, the latter by this time divided into flats. When 23 Coolgardie Street was put on the market later the same year, it appears it was no longer combined with 19 Coolgardie Street. Aerial photographs suggest there had been some small additions made to the rear of 19 Coolgardie Street by 1948. It is not clear when the free-standing two-storey studio apartment was constructed, as the earlier timber and glass building appears almost the same from above. However, it is likely the studio apartment was added in the late 1970s. 19 Coolgardie Street is shown as having been sold in July 2001 ($290,000) and April 2011 ($870,000). In 2006 it was listed as a rental property. The property changed hands in April 2021, for $1,125,000. It is on the market again in November 2021, apparently without any major changes.

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