Ivanhoe
8 Ord St, 1889 near corner of High Street
Residence built for James Lilly, shipping magnate; later (1914) home to Capt Frank and Blanche Biddles. Later, it was available for functions such as wedding receptions: I attended Grant Patterson's wedding there in 1964 or 1965. Just in time! In 1966 it was demolished to make way for an ugly block of flats and a petrol vending station. There's now a block of townhouses on that corner. Photo #4625, 1916, from the Fremantle Library Local History Collection.
Below is a view across Fremantle Park towards Ivanhoe in 1909.
Library:
Looking South East from the Australia Hotel.
From a post card. In the left background is the Obelisk on Monument Hill. In front of it and slightly to the right is Ivanhoe (1889), the large house on the corner of Ord and High Streets erected for James Lilly. Ellen Street runs across the picture, edged with large houses overlooking Fremantle Park. The old Catholic Presbytery is at the extreme right front next to the Proclamation Tree and Marmion Memorial. In the left foreground is a shingle roofed cottage in Victoria Road, occupied by the Nelson family (J W Nelson was a general carrier). A small tram is on the corner of the Princess May School playground. Photograph, taken 1909, from the Fremantle City Library Local History Photographic Collection: 1775. (Text from the Library entry.)
What buildings in the photograph remain? Ivanhoe is definitely (and sadly) gone, but the building opposite it, across High St, on the extreme left of the photo, is Lenaville, which was built in 1885 for Henry Blinco (1832-1907), Chief Warder of the Prison. And on the other side of Ord St from Ivanhoe, in High St, may be seen what I suppose started as two pairs of semi-detached houses, and which still exist. The higher (left) one currently houses the Fremantle Multicultural Centre, at 241-243 High St. Two or three of the two-storey house along Ord St to our right from Ivanhoe are probably the houses that are still there. There will be others: those are all I can spot at the moment. The impressive two-storey building on Ellen St, just to the left of the centre of the photo, is identified in the photo further down this page as Christian Brothers College. I'm not sure right now if the same building is still there: I think not, tho CBC as such is still there. Perhaps that original building was extended.
References and Links
Davidson, Ron 2007, Fremantle Impressions, FACP: 204.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 28 December, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/ivanhoe.html (it was last updated on 31 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.