Vaucluse House - Sydney

With a long weekend planned in Sydney to attend the Opera on the Harbour, I felt it was necessary for Mum and I to incorporate a few historical houses into our trip.
When last in Melbourne we'd done Ripponlea and Como House and I was hoping for at least one equivalent in Sydney.
I found two that were open at suitable times. Elizabeth Bay House, just around the corner from where we were staying, and Vaucluse House.

Chasing the Albany Municipal Library.

For one small insignificant reference in my novel, I wanted to know where the Albany Library was located between the years 1900 and 1908. My secondary character needed a pre-occupation for a morning which would result in her running late for a meeting with friends. Given the character's occupation and interests, being immersed in some research at the local library seemed to be ideal.

Provided of course the library was in the centre of town. I assume it would be, but never liking to make assumptions I thought I'd discover the exact location. Just as I'd discovered all the details regarding the way to travel down to Albany from Guildford. The characters may be fictional, but the historical setting has to be historically accurate to the best of my ability.

C.Y.O'Connor Beach

Off South Beach

Being located on the water, Fremantle is a port after all, one of the things I like to do while house sitting in the area is to head down to C.Y.O'Connor Beach to explore the wrecks and memorial, and watch the setting sun.

My first venture down,several years ago now, had been purely accidental; arriving at South Beach an hour before sunset, I didn't feel like hanging around and so rode south, past the cattle slip lanes before climbing over the sand dues and onto the beach. There, about 50 metres off the coast, partially submerged in the waves, is a statue of a man on a horse. It is the memorial to C.Y.O'Connor who committed suicide off this beach in 1902.

O'Connor is one of this state's great engineers. He is responsible for the transformation of Fremantle Harbour into the commercial success it is today and for the pipeline that transported water from the Perth hills to Kalgoorlie to support the growing gold rush.

Historical Musings of a Renovator*

Having recently project managed the renovation of my grandfather's house, I found myself discussing some of the discoveries I'd made with some girlfriends over breakfast, and we wondered over the interconnection of various elements of the house.

When I had been receiving quotes for new carpet in the bedrooms, upon measuring the bedrooms the salesman had emphasised the ease of the laying due simply to the size of the room. A rectangular room, it possessed standard dimensions that were also the standard measurements for the carpet we were intending to lay. It seems a roll of carpet is made with a width of 360cm/12ft (the exact measurement may differ slightly) which is the standard width of the bedrooms in Federation houses.

This interesting coincidence led to the series of questions of whether it was in fact a coincidence or actually a causal relationship.

Had the standard width for carpet become 360cm because of the room size? 
Why had 360cm become the standard room width? It seems an unlikely number, so was it based upon the maximum or standard length of the ceiling beams, or the ultimate width of the house (eaves, two rooms and a corridor between)?

It's unlikely that the carpet width came first with the rooms built to fit. That's just not the order in which most houses are built. In addition, initially the houses were possibly not designed to have fitted carpet; the underlying Jarrah floorboards and removable rugs would have been far easier to maintain. It makes sense that carpet would have become a standard feature later and if the majority of rooms are this one size, then why not weave the carpet to fit, without the need for cutting and adding and fitting together.

But if the majority of homes had rooms of this one size, then what was it that had determined this measurement as the standard room size?

Even in this day and age where houses seem to almost be rolled out on a production line there is still enough variation in the size of rooms. So why did 360cm/12ft become the standardised measure? Or how?
Is the room size based upon the length of ceiling beams? Across one room, or across the whole house? Or is it instead related to another element of the house's construction that I haven't even considered? Something must have determined this specific measurement over say 10ft, but I'm at a loss to determine what it might have been.

This initial subject lead to another one.

Why are the ceilings of Federation houses so high?

Now it is most definitely not a standard feature and yet then, 100 years ago it was. It was almost guaranteed not to have been the result of cost; they were more likely to have been lowered again to save on costs. In addition, in the earliest days, if costs were of greatest concern the doors would have been scarcely higher than the owners and the ceilings barely higher again.

I wonder if the tall ceilings are due instead to the Australian climate in which they are built. For they would enable the unfamiliar (and unbearable) heat to rise away from the inhabitants and slip out through the ornate holes in the upper wall.

This would seem somewhat of an illogical move given that in the winters the idea would have been to conserve what existing warmth there was (particularly given how cold Federation houses can be) as opposed to letting it rise and escape outside.
But perhaps then practices were different.
The houses were furnished with at least one fireplace and wood to burn would have been readily available. Besides, most of the early settlers probably hailed from the United Kingdom and so would probably felt far more at home in the cold misery of winter.

*title courtesy of Miranda 

Historical Homes of Perth

It isn't until you start looking, start digging that you discover them; the houses and homesteads that tie in with the history of Perth and beyond.

I remember knowing about Tranby House, possibly due to a school outing. But its always been there, hovering at the back of my knowledge of Perth History. Only recently have the others been added, due to research actively undertaken or a chance picture hanging on the back of the toilet door. 

While many of these are run by the National Trust and receive some publicity when the Perth Heritage festival is on, others slip through the cracks and almost disappear altogether. 

Woodbridge
Ford Street.
Woodbridge 6056 WA

Located at the River's edge between the playing fields of Guildford Grammar and Governor Stirling School this house was built in 1885 by Charles Harper, gentleman farmer of the surrounding land. In fact it was in the Billiards Room of this house that Guildford Grammar began, to combat complaints as to the unruliness of his sons on the train to Hale.

In fact, from the verandahs, one gets a beautiful view across the playing fields (in this age, devoid of sheep) and across the Swan to a flat plain covered in vines.  

Peninsula Farm (Tranby House)
Johnson Road
Maylands 6051 WA

Tranby House is Perth's oldest homestead, built 10 years after settlement to replace two earlier homes in this location.
I haven't visited the house in years, aside from a recent high tea at the attached cafe.

Halliday House
114 King William Street
Bayswater

I'm sad to say I didn't find this house as stimulating as some of the others; though a beautiful house, the rooms were virtually bare by the standards of the time and you had to be incessantly curious to draw out the history of the house.

Samson House
corner Ord Street & Ellen Street

Fremantle

Though now managed by the National Trust (it was previously managed by the WA Museum), this house is officially closed to the public barring the occasional open day when it is well worth a visit. The house and contents are rather exquisite even if the gardens would benefit from some attention. Pay careful attention to the private cinema, and well just outside the old back door. 

Azelia Ley Homestead

Davilak Avenue

Hamilton Hill

A beautiful old house set in the middle of parklands, crammed full of family history and era-appropriate paraphernalia. This museum does a beautiful job of tell the story of the Manning family and if packed full of artefacts many people would remember from their own childhoods. Well worth a visit. My visit is recorded here.


Woodloes Homestead
Woodloes Street
Cannington

I missed visiting during the Heritage festival this year as I was inundated with other events. However if the website is anything to go by this 1871 homestead, built by wealthy settlers is open on Sundays between February and December. So hopefully I will be visiting soon.


Government House
St Georges Terrace
Perth

While this is an historic house, it is still operational and lived in by the current Governor of Perth and his/her family. For this reason it is only occasionally opened to the public. I understand the next open day will be in October but keep your eyes on their website for details.

As I went to publish this, I discovered another:

Curtin Family Home
24 Jarrad Street
Cottesloe

A National Trust property that is rarely opened to the public and does not have much presence on the Trust website. Not sure when it will next be open.


** will update this post when I discover more.

Samson House

Samson House is virtually never open, but it was on Mother's day.
So, as a present to my darling mum I dragged her along to have a sticky beak.

It's run by the National Trust having been transferred from the Western Australian Museum to whom it was bequeathed by the late owner Sir Frederick Samson, Mayor of Fremantle.

The right hand bedroom, used by the various mistresses of the house (if memory serves). Prior to the extension, this room was the drawing room. 

The left hand bedroom, belonging to the various masters of the house (again, if memory serves).

Originally the dining room, this became the sitting room when the extension was built. Given the fine oil painting  of Michael Samson hanging above the fire place and delicate furniture, this room would have been an official entertaining room. 

This was a picture hanging on the wall of the extension corridor. It is a view of Perth city from Mt Eliza, made in the 1850s. 

Originally the house was just a little bigger than the average Federation house built in and around Fremantle at the turn of the 20th Century. Built in 1888 to a Talbot Hobbs design, it consisted of a central corridor flanking two bedrooms with bay windows, a dressing room/nursery behind one and the dining room and sitting room behind the bedrooms, thereby creating a basic 2x2 structure. The kitchen rooms and bathroom were beyond this, only partially attached to the main part of the house. 

With a young wife and son, in 1899 Michael Samson decided to expand the house to accommodate a new dinging rooms and drawing room, tower, bathroom and cellar beneath the extension. 

The new dining room. Not nearly large enough for a proper dinner party, though the faces in the table leg were charming. 

The corridor of the extension, leading to the stairs of the tower. 

The new Drawing Room. It is hypothesised that the little bay window was thus designed to enable the children to have a 'stage' for their performances and recitals. 

Though typical of the time, and partially due to the louvers and scrim in the windows, the rooms were ridiculously dark despite being a bright autumn morning. The three photos of this room were all taking with flash.  

Possibly originally a side door out into the rose garden, this stain glass door now hides a dilapidated movie theatre. in the 1950s Frederick Samson closed off part of the veranda, and using seats from the defunct Fremantle trams, set up his own personal movie theatre.

Looking down the corridor from the back door towards the front door. 

Outside the back door -pre-extension (now inside the back door) is a 20m deep well, complete with hand pump.

The kitchen (because I always photograph the kitchen). My mother tells stories of a similar free standing stove in her childhood home. The cat's favourite spot was underneath it where it would absorb the warmth of the oven (as cats do) and eat spaghetti with her paw.

The new tiled and marbled bathroom outside the new drawing room. It was fun wandering around with Mum, who is just old enough to remember some of the features of the house being present in her own childhood home before it was 'renovated'.

The Rose Garden and Lilly-Pilly Tree with the Tower in the background. 

At the back of the house is a row of out houses, now used to showcase the laundry and workshop and display some of the other artefacts that were too interesting or typical a component of a house/lifestyle to go into storage.

The laundry was rather standard: your copper, wood pile, laundry basket, wringer, washboard...

however there was one contraption (to the left) which we couldn't quite place. It wasn't an early washing machine as the hatch was on the side and most likely not water tight, and it wasn't a wringer (to the right). So was it a spinner?
The labels indicate it's a 'The Vowel 'I'' by 'F.Lassetter & Co', but that didn't help much.

The workshop.

Storage/Originally a man servant's room.