Millers' Bakehouse Museum

Statement of Significance

The Museum/Bakehouse is significant for the following reasons:
Historic Value: The building remains in its original condition as a small commercial bakery which served the local area.

Scientific value: Contains the original oven, in situ and intact.

Social Value: Demonstrates an important facet of daily life in the early days of the district.

Rarity: One of the few remaining examples of an intact bakery from this period.

Miller Bakehouse is the commercial adjunct to the Miller House.
Miller Bakehouse, a single-storey brick and tile bakehouse building, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
the place is a rare example of a working residential bakehouse which retains substantial equipment and machinery dating from the period of use as a working bakery; the place is a rare example of a working residential bakehouse constructed in the 1930s in metropolitan Perth; the place is an example of a family business which supplied bread to the Fremantle and Palmyra area from the 1930s until its closure in 1976; the place is significant for the design and construction of the bread oven based on design principles developed in the mid to late nineteenth century and is one of the few remaining ovens of this type.

SIGNIFICANT ITEMS:
The external form, material and details of the original fabric, and the location set back from street boundaries in the current site landscaped as a park; the original oven and bakery equipment.

Physical Description

Detached building set in a small reserve adjacent to the original owners home, the building contains much of its original baking equipment.

A single-storey red brick commercial building with gabled ends half-timbered, roof clad in orange Marseilles pattern terracotta tiles. A recessed open verandah extends along the eastern side facing onto the former service yard.

History

Miller Bakehouse, the commercial adjunct to the Miller House, was constructed for Henry Miller, baker, and his family in 1935 on land adjacent to the 1929 Miller House in a residential subdivision.

The Miller family bakery business serviced the district from 1929 until 1976, using a horse-drawn bread cart for deliveries.

The bakehouse, surviving oven and bakery equipment represent suburban living and the custom of one of the local service industries located throughout residential districts in the decades prior to supermarkets and shopping centres and the demise of the 'corner store'.

The two buildings are now set in landscaped parkland.

Integrity/Authenticity

Modifications: Some
Extent of Original Fabric: Most. It has been returned to it's original state as a bakery.

Condition

Good- Sound

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.