11-13 Alma Street

The houses in 1979.
Streets:	Alma Street
Wikidata:	Q73008050
inHerit:	24673
Loading map...

11-13 Alma Street is a residential duplex in Alma Street, opposite the hospital.

inHerit has separate entries for the two halves of the duplex. They have almost identical text, so the two have been merged below.

Statement of significance

Duplex, 11 & 13 Alma Street, is a typical brick and iron single storey duplex pair dating from 1900. The place has aesthetic value for its contribution to the streetscape and the surrounding area. It is representative of the typical workers' houses in the Fremantle area. The place is very late example of the Victorian Georgian style of architecture.

Physical description

Duplex, 11-13 Alma Street is a single storey rendered brick and iron duplex pair with an asymmetrical facade designed as a late example of the Victorian Georgian style of architecture. The walls are rendered brick. The roof is gabled and clad with zincalume. There is a protruding dividing wall between the two duplex halves. The roof to number 13 has been replaced at a later date than the roof to number 11.

Originally the facades to the two duplex halves would have been identical and symmetrical. Now No. 11 has a large timber framed, three pane window with a timber framed, corrugated iron clad awning over, and a low height timber picket fence to the boundary, whilst No. 13 has a pair of timber framed double hung sash windows and a steeply pitched, corrugated iron verandah roof supported on turned timber posts and no fence. The verandah is set on the front boundary line of the property. The front doors are both set back behind arched recesses.

History

This house is part of a duplex pair 11-13 Alma Street which were formerly numbered 35-37 Alma Street. The numbering changed in 1934/35. The cottages were built in 1900 for the owner Richard Joseph Shanahan. He was a railway employee who had come from South Australia in the early 1890s. He married Catherine O’Keefe in Fremantle and the couple had five children and occupied 11 Alma Street until 1903/4. In 1902/03, the ownership of the cottages transferred to Captain Frank Biddles who leased out the cottages to various tenants. Biddles was a ship owner and master pearler who operated from Broome and Cossack.

In December 1907, the sewerage plan of the site shows that the two brick buildings fully occupied the lots except for a small access way along the sides of the buildings. Small weatherboard structures were constructed on the rear of the building and brick closets were located in the small rear yard. The laneway at the rear of the lots provided access to the property and the lots were fenced.

Descendants of Frank Biddles owned the properties until 1935/36 when the ownership was transferred to Irene Raymond Mills and then Lily M Organ. In 1951/52 the properties were transferred to Giovanni, Domenico and Joseph Buzzai. The Buzzai family were owners of both cottages until the 1970s and various members of the Buzzai family occupied the cottages throughout this period.

In 1972/74, 11 Alma Street was transferred to William Rene Sinclair and he occupied the cottage.

In 1968/72, 13 Alma Street was transferred to Roland Willetts and he occupied that cottage.

A photograph of the cottages taken in 1978 shows that the two cottages had rendered front facades. The front windows were different: No. 11 had one large, three paned casement window and No. 13 had two sash windows. At this time, the roof of 11 Alma Street had been replaced with corrugated zincalume, while the roof of 13 Alma Street still featured the original short sheets of corrugated iron.

In 1991, a real estate photograph of the 13 Alma Street cottage shows that a small verandah had been added to the front elevation. Internally the cottage had been renovated with new wet areas and kitchen.