Cossies Cottage

Statement of Significance

Cossie’s Cottage has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: The place is associated with well-known Albany residents the Mackie family, Chester Oswald Tranter, Josiah Norman, Wilfrid and Evelyn Carter. It is one of only a few examples in the Albany town area of a corrugated iron clad simple cottage dwelling, and which has retained a high level of authenticity. It is one of a group of houses in Spencer Street that have heritage value both individually and as part of a relatively harmonious streetscape mainly reflecting the Victorian and Federation architectural styles.

Physical Description

Some of the notable features of this place include: • Set below road level • All corrugated iron cladding both walls and hipped roof • Two very tall rendered chimneys • Verandahs under a broken baked roof on three sides of the cottage • Windows and doors wooden framed Some obvious modifications include: • The house used to be over two blocks with a kitchen unit or the original small cottage linked to the main. This was demolished and has now been replaced with a new brick structure

History

The cottage appears to predate street planning owing to its orientation. The current rear of the house was originally the front when the site was a block of suburban market garden running down towards Aberdeen St. This cottage was once part of two buildings linked by a breezeway. The earlier building has since been demolished. Lot 136 was originally granted to John Gifford Tassell, painter on 6 March 1867. Tassell sold the eastern portion, including all appurtenances to Mary Thomas of Albany on the 18 August 1868. Mary Thomas then further subdivided the block by selling the north portion to Hannah Amelia Mackie wife of Edmund Mackie in 1887. Edmund Mackie listed as a painter in the Albany rates books, is credited with having performed the first baptism by full immersion in Western Australia. Mackie came to Western Australia from Massachusetts as a whaler. In 1870 or 1871 he baptised fellow whaler and American James Sherman, in the waters of Albany presumably at the bottom of Spencer St. After settling in Albany Mackie prayed with the Methodists until the establishment of the Baptist Church, located only a few streets from his Spencer St property in 1904. Mackie married Hannah Amelia Thomas and they went on to have seven children. In 1928 Hannah Mackie (by this time a widow) obtained sole title of the Spencer St property and in 1930 transferred the title to her daughter Phoebe. Examination of the Rate Books from 1900 shows that the property owned by the Mackie’s included a house. However, no documentary evidence has been found to positively identify the succession of buildings on the site. It is possible that the smaller two room cottage (now demolished) was built for or by the Thomas’ putting its construction date in the late 1860s. Before removal the cottage showed evidence of hand made nails and other early construction materials. The Mackie’s may have built the second, four roomed main house in 1889 or in the 1890s and as the family grew used the device of the breezeway to connect the earlier building to provide room for the expanding family. Anecdotal evidence that the house was built by Josiah Norman, brother-in-law to Hannah Mackie, cannot be entirely dismissed, although it is likely that the house was built by his nephew John Norman (jnr) who is listed in the Post Office Directories in the 1910s and 1920s as a builder. Josiah Norman is recorded as being both a baker, pastry cook, carpenter and contractor. According to anecdotal evidence received by the Town of Albany, the Mackie residence was used as the Baptist Manse after the death of Miss Phoebe Mackie. In 1938 the property was transferred to Chester Oswald Tranter and did not change hands again until 1968 when it was taken up by Wilfrid and Evelyn Carter, of Middleton Rd Albany. In 1974 it became the property of Pamela Hall and then Coral Jones in 1983. In the 1990s it was taken over by Edwin and Rita Mclean. During this period the small cottage to the side of the house was demolished, the block subdivided and a new house erected.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: Moderate Authenticity: High/Moderate

Condition

Good

Uses

Creation Date

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