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St David's Anglican Church
Douro Road, corner of Walker Street, church and hall, c. 1900 - 1920s
Heritage Council:
Site of St David's Church and Hall
Statement of Significance
House, 9 Douro Road is a fine example of a single storey house dating from 1934. 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 South Fremantle area. The place is an example of the Arts and Crafts style of architecture. Prior to the construction of the house, the land was the site of St David's Anglican Church and Hall (c. 1900 to c. 1920).
Physical Description
House, 9 Douro Road is a single storey rendered masonry and tile house with an asymmetrical façade constructed 1934 as an example of an Arts and Crafts Bungalow. The house is set well back from Walker Street. The walls are painted and rendered masonry. The roof is hipped and gabled with no eaves and clad with tiles. The gable ends are timbered. The front porch is under a separate gable roof with arched rendered masonry piers. There is a limestone chimney to the side of the house. There is a timber and mesh fence to the boundary that sits atop a low stone wall.
History
Between 1900 and 1930, Chesterfield was a separate suburb, focused around Douro Road. The street is named for the Duke of Wellington, who was also the Marquis of Douro, after the Battle of the passage of the Douro River in the Peninsular War. Douro Rd meets Marine Tce, which was formerly Wellington Tce. A 1908 PWD drawing shows a Church of England Sunday School on the south-west corner of Douro Road and Walker Streets, and shops to the street frontage on Douro Road on the corners of Thomas, Hulbert (Jane) and Chester streets. Large stables were also located on the south-east corner of Hulbert and Douro Road. In 1900, Town Lot 10 of Subdivision 22 (later 9 Douro Road) was vacant land owned by the Church of England. St David’s Anglican Church was built c. 1900 on the south-east corner of Douro Road and James (now Walker) Street. It was an unpainted timber structure with an iron roof. Mr Elgar Hale ran the Sunday School. He is believed to have changed identity discs with a fellow soldier during World War II. The other man was killed and Elgar walked into the Church while a commemorative service for him was in progress. The hall was blown down in a storm in the 1920s. It is not known when the church was demolished. In March 1934, plans were approved for a brick residence near the corner of Douro Road and Walker Street. The builder was H Costello of Coode St, South Perth. The house cost £1,000 and was built for Evelyn and Gerald Darling. The Darlings retained ownership until c. 1960, at which time the house was purchased by David and Violet Burton. By the mid-1960s, Stanley and Gwellian Hair were the owners and Mrs Maria Folgliani has been the owner since c. 1970. A diagram dated 1954 shows House, 9 Douro Road as a large brick house of unusual plan form, consistent with its Arts and Crafts style. The roughly square house had a short front verandah, and two short verandahs on either side of the house. No rear verandah or sleep-out is shown. This place was included in the "Heritage Study South Fremantle", prepared by John Taylor Architects, for the City of Fremantle, June 1993.
References and Links
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 15 August, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/churches/stdavids.html (it was last updated on 23 November, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.