HOUSE (NOT EXTANT), 102 THOMPSON ROAD

Parent Place or Precinct

22385 North Fremantle Precinct

Physical Description

RELOCATED - See Place record for Stringfellow's House, 3 Stirling Highway.

History

Thompson Road was named for George Thompson (1838-1874), Fremantle's first town clerk (1871-73). The street is mainly residential, with some commercial development at the northern end between Alfred Road and McCabe Road. The majority of the houses were built c. 1900. Only a few lots on the street remained vacant in the 1920s.


House, 102 Thompson Road was built c. 1913 by Burnett Stringfellow, who lived there from that time. Stringfellow was a blacksmith by trade, and work at the State Engineering Works. He also lectured at the Perth Technical College in the 1920s. He had three daughters with his first wife, Jane; namely Vera, Miriam and Nancy. Jane died circa 1927, and Burnett married Nora Ellen Hipper. The couple had a daughter, Jeanette. The place remained in the Stringfellow family until 1977. After this the cottage became used for rental accommodation and the surrounding area became more industrialised.

An application to demolish the house in 1990 prompted the Timber House Group within the Planning Committee of the City of Fremantle to use the house as a test case for the ‘Innovative Timber Houses Recycling Project’. The project was jointly funded by the City of Fremantle and the State Government’s Homeswest and aimed to provide a solution to two problems - the increasing demolition of timber houses in Fremantle and the need to provide a variety of rental accommodation to clients of Homeswest.

In 1991, a newspaper article described the relocation of the residence as the result of an arrangement between Fremantle Council and Homeswest, whereby the two organisations worked together to save the cottage, which had become surrounded by an industrial area, and relocate it to vacant Council land for use as low-income rental housing.

The house was sawn in half for transport to the corner of Stirling Highway and Tydeman Road (3 Stirling Highway), approximately 1km away to the south, where it was to be rebuilt and restored by Homeswest.

The Mayor of Fremantle, John Cattalini, opened the cottage on 30 May 1991. Present at the opening was Burnett Stringfellow’s daughter and two granddaughters. In 2004, the cottage is used as a residence and managed by the Department of Housing and Works.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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