Little Howard Street, 19, Fremantle WA 6160
DESCRIPTION
Heritage TitleDUPLEX, 19 LITTLE HOWARD STREETAddress19 Little Howard Street FREMANTLE WA 6160Geo tag[1] Heritage Place No27096Location DescriptionStreet Number19Construction MaterialRoof – TILE: Terracotta TileWall – BRICK: Face BrickWall – STONE: LimestoneFormer W.A. Heritage ThemesDEMOGRAPHIC SETTLEMENT & MOBILITY: Immigration emigration & refugeesStatement Of Significance19 Little Howard Street, a masonry and terracotta tile single storey terrace duplex that has been substantially modified in the Post War era, has little cultural heritage significance within the context of Fremantle and its conservation is not required.ArchaeologyConditionFairHistoryHoward Street is shown on the first plans of Fremantle prepared by the Surveyor General J. S. Roe. It was named after Lord Edward Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop (1818 – 1883) and a British Liberal politician. Little Howard Street does not appear on maps until after the development of the Convict Establishment in the 1860s. It takes its name as a narrow continuation of Howard Street. By 1892 the irregular shaped block bounded by Little Howard, Alexander Road (Wray Avenue) and Cemetery Road (Brenan Street) has been divided into two triangular shaped lots 684 and 685. By 1897, the first year that Little Howard Street appears in the rates books (as Howard Street west), these lots have been subdivided further into the current configuration of small residential lots. 19 Little Howard Street is Lot 14. While the construction date of 19 Little Howard Street has not yet been determined, it is found listed under Cemetery Road in the 1905/6 rate book. Lot 14 contains two cottages, numbered 37 and 38. Both cottages are owned by John Kerr. 37 is occupied by James Tait a saddler and and 38 by Henry Reikie (?) a glazier. At this time John Kerr also owns the adjacent Lot 15 which faces Cemetery Road and contains cottages 32 and 34. The footprint of 19 Little Howard Street appears on a metropolitan sewerage plan from 1907. It is a duplex which was at that time numbered 37 and 39 Little Howard Street . This duplex was very similar to the typical development in the street but unusually the design is asymmetrical with the eastern duplex adjoining Cemetery Road (Brennan Street) having a narrower frontage to suit the truncated shape of the site and the western half having a wing that projects forward to align with the front edge of the front verandah. The eastern half also has a side verandah facing onto Cemetery Road, but the western half has a light well to illuminate and ventilate the rear rooms. The earliest aerial photograph of this site from 1947 shows that 19 Howard Street has remained largely unaltered since 1907. Ratebooks from 1948/49 show that 17 and 19 Little Howard Street are owned by Anne Catherine Smith with 17 being occupied by John Thomas Reece and 19 By Thomas Johnston. In 1950/51 the ratebooks show that 17 and 19 Little Howard Street have changed hands and are now owned by Maria Amato and Egnazio Pisani although the cottages are still occupied by John Thomas Reece and Thomas Johnston. The properties remain in the same ownership in the 1952-53 rate record but number 19 is now occupied by Francesco Amato. Metropolitan Sewerage Plan from 1954 shows that the plan of 17 and 19 Little Howard Street have not changed since 1908. In the 1956/60 rate record Egnazio Pisani is recorded as the sole owner of 17 and 19 Little Howard Street and is occupying number 19 and renting out number 17 to a Harris. Then in the 1960/65 rate record Egnazio Pisani becomes the sole occupier of the cottages and the record notes that 17 and 19 were incorporated as one asset in 1962. The property has remained in the ownership of the Pisani family until now. An aerial photograph from 1965 shows that the roof form and verandahs to 19 Little Howard Street have been considerably changed since 1954 and now match their current configuration. A 1974 aerial photograph shows that the raised terraces to the north and east sides of the house have been constructed since 1965. 16 Little Howard Street was not included on the original Municipal Inventory or added to the heritage list in 2008. On 23 February 2022 Council considered the significance of the place and decided that it did not meet the threshold for inclusion on the Heritage List. It was instead resolved to add it to the Local Heritage Survey to record the history of the place as a management category Historic Record Only.Physical Description19 Little Howard Street has a dominant location on the corner of Little Howard and Brenan Streets and while it has a similar scale and massing to the surrounding duplex houses, it has a distinctly different architectural character which reflects extensive changes made to the place in the Post-War era. The house is raised about one meter above street level on a terrace that extends out to the Little Howard and Brennan Street boundaries. The terrace has a cream brick retaining wall, a concrete slab floor and a decorative wrought iron balustrade. Stairs lead down to footpath level. The house has a hipped roof clad with terracotta tiles and wide boxed eaves lined with fibrous cement sheeting. The original walls have been faced with cream brickwork and all original windows have been replaced with horizontal format openings with a splayed sill tile detail and aluminium sliders. Most of the chimneys have been removed except for the kitchen chimneys to the rear. The front façade facing Little Howard Street retains some evidence of its original configuration as a duplex with each half of the façade containing a door and a window but these elements are not symmetrically arranged as elsewhere in the street and the windowproportions have been altered. The front verandah has also been removed and the roof pitch and geometry have been altered to create wide eaves. The Brennan Street side façade has also been altered with the replacement of the original windows with horizontal format openings and the modification of the roof pitch and geometry to create wide eaves. The original verandah has also been replaced with a new verandah with a flat concrete roof supported by pairs of steel posts. The main entrance to the house is now located under the Brenan Street verandah. The form of the original duplex can be seen at the rear of the building. The eastern half has been clad with cream cricks and the kitchen chimney replaced in matching bricks but the western half has not been altered as much and retains the original brick kitchen chimney. Aerial photographs indicate that part of the light well between the terraces has been enclosed and the roof geometry and pitch to the eastern half has been modified to extend over this area, however, this area was not visible from the street.AssociationPlace UseOriginal Use – RESIDENTIAL: Conjoined residenceArchitectural StylesIntegrity/AuthenticityLowPlace TypeIndividual Building or Group
Local Government Non-Statutory Local Heritage Survey
Local Government Non-Statutory Local Heritage Survey CustodianCity of FremantleLocal Government Non-Statutory Local Heritage Survey Date27/04/2022Local Government Non-Statutory Listing Local Heritage Survey Management CategoryHistorical Record Only
RELATED
Little Howard Street, 19, Fremantle WA 6160. City of Fremantle Local History Centre, accessed 11/04/2026, https://history.fremantle.wa.gov.au/nodes/view/29190