High Street, north side, from Pakenham to Market Street
The first grantees of these lots were: 409 (and 408): W.M. Dixon; 410: Louisa Bond; 411: Maria Gregson; 412: Joseph Moore; 413: James P. Watts; 414: Jacob Toby; 415: Robert Hapgood; 416: Charles H. Duffield.
At the end of 2022, by my own rough estimation, using Google Maps and streetview, the eight lots are occupied as follows.
Lot 409: Mason's Building (1908), 66-70 High Street, previously tenanted by Commonwealth Bank, now occupied by Viva Travel, with Hush Coffee (68) and the Chart & Map Shop (70) on the street front of the eastern portion of the building.
Lots 410. Pearse's Building (1899), 72-78 High Street, shops occupied by Bodkin's Bootery, Unique Hair & Beauty.
Lot 411: former Commercial Hotel (1908), 80 High Street, formerly Albert's Hotel, now trading as Sun Dancer Backpackers.
Lot 412: former Commonwealth Bank building (1934) 82 High Street. Current tenants: Common Ground.
Lot 413: former ANZ Bank building (1930), 86 High Street, formerly Union Bank of Australia. Tenants since 2018: World of Renovation.
Lot 414: former National Australian bank (modern building), 88 High Street. Currently utilised as the Fremantle Police Station, until the new one is built in South Terrace.
Lot 415: Palace Arcade pinball joint and bar in the worst building in Fremantle.
Lot 416: National Hotel.
Hitchcock 1919, describing the situation as he recalled it in 1869:
From the next corner of Packenham-street, right up to the Market-street every block was built upon, some of the structures being of a very primitive type. On the Packenham-street corner [lot 409] was a retail store kept by Herbert Dixon, then a couple of small provision stores kept by W. Kett and T. Monaghan, then a wooden structure used as a greengrocer’s shop by G. Curedale.
Next came the Albert Hotel on the site of which the Commercial Hotel now stands. The Albert Hotel was owned and kept by the late Captain John Thomas, [>] who died a few years ago at the great age of 94. He used to trade to Batavia, Singapore, and Mauritius, first in a little cutter of 25 tons, and afterwards in a 100-ton schooner named the Empress. He it was who, after his retirement from the sea, taught most of our old-time coasting skippers all they knew of the art of navigation, and that was very little, as most of them used to find their way about by instinct or rule of thumb. In those go-as-you-please days certificates of competency were unheard of and anyone could be a shipmaster, doctor, or dentist without his qualifications being put to any test. There was consternation amongst the ancient mariners when certificates were first brought into vogue. Many of them, though they were splendid seamen, and had been sailing ships for years, could not pass even the very elementary examination then required until after several attempts, and some never succeeded in passing at all.
Next to the Albert Hotel were several small wooden shops occupied respectively by W. Leach, bootmaker; Miss Leach, fancy goods; Theophilus Carter, watchmaker; E. Wellstead, cabinetmaker; D. B. Francisco, auctioneer; and Rankin and Watson, retailers. Then came a tiny little cottage having a neat flower garden in front and occupied by ‘Paddy’, the wheelbarrow man. Paddy was an eccentric character, the butt of all the small boys, and made a comfortable living by removing luggage, etc, with his barrow, the town not having yet reached the carrier’s cart stage. On the next allotment was a greengrocer’s shop and firewood yard kept by Mr. Weeden, adjoining which was the Era newspaper office. Fremantle could boast two newspapers in those days – the Herald and the Era – though it has since often been without even one.
The Era was owned and published by a versatile gentleman named George Barrow. In the day time he worked as accountant for Mr. Lionel Samson, and in the night time on the production of his newspaper. It was a small affair printed in lithograph, and published once a week at the price of 6d. Barrow afterwards left the colony and obtained a Government appointment at £800 a year in Mauritius, but on its becoming known there that he was an ex-convict from W.A. he lost his position. Of his subsequent career I know nothing, but if ability and energy account for anything, I have no doubt that he found scope for his activities elsewhere.
Next to the Era office was the National Bank, occupying portion of the block [lot 416] on which the National Hotel now stands. It was the only bank operating in Fremantle at that time, and its staff consisted of two – R.M. Sutherland, manager, and W.F. Samson, cashier – the latter being succeeded by A. F. Durlacher (now in England), who afterwards became a member of the firm of W.D. Moore and Co., whilst Mr. Samson (now deceased) became head of the firm of L. Samson and Son.
On the corner of High and Market streets [lot 416] was a diminutive shop kept by A.M. Josephson, who commenced as an itinerant pedlar of haberdashery, etc., and afterwards made a lot of money in buying and selling pearls. Eventually he became a very wealthy man, and died in England some years ago.
References and Links
Hitchcock, J.K. 1919, [[../books/hitchcock1919.html|'Early Days of Fremantle: High Street 50 Years Ago']], Fremantle Times, one of a series of articles on 'Early Days of Fremantle' publ. 21 March - 20 June 1919.
Fremantle History Centre. Look for the PDFs called:
Purchasers of Fremantle Town Lots 1829-1837
Purchasers of Fremantle Town Lots 1855-1879
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 2 December, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/lots/409-416.html (it was last updated on 10 December, 2022), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.