27 Sewell Street — Streets of East Freo

ARCHITECTURE

Federation
Gable Terrace w Carpenter Gothic Influences

No. 27 (previously was no. 69) Sewell street is a pair of single story cottages constructed in limestone and brick construction with render decorative details. The place has a pair of prominent gabled roofs and hipped corrugated iron roofs. The gables are highly decorative complete with render niches set into their brick gables. It is a very fine expression of a duplex in the Federation Cottage Ornée Bungalow style. The pair is symmetrically planned with a party wall flanked by full width bull-nosed roofed verandahs. The verandahs are supported on timber posts. The entry doors are equally offset from the party wall and are flanked by pairs of double hung sash windows. All openings have brick quoins.

HISTORY

1912 - 1913: Mrs. Clara Ewels (seems to have moved to Toodyay after 1913). Her son Henry Robert Ewels, who was born in East Fremantle, joined the AIF in June 1916 and was killed in Belgium in 1917. (AIF Record)

AIF 1916, Henry Robert Ewels (Regimental number 2438) Occupation Shop Assistant, Born in East Fremantle. Mother (Mrs Clara James) remarried and during war, lived in Toodyay, WA, Single, Age at embarkation 18. Next of kin Mother: Clara James

AIF 1916, William Brooks Gordon (Regimental number 1149) Occupation Tramway employee, 27 Sewell Street, East Fremantle, Married, Age at embarkation 31. Next of kin Mrs. Mary Rebecca Brooks (wife). (AIF Record)

AIF 1917, Ralph Stobbart (Regimental number 4387) Occupation Lighterman, 27 Sewell St, East Fremantle, Married, Age at embarkation 37. Next of kin Mrs. M. Stobbart, Wife. (AIF Record)

1934 Fremantle Inquest. After Inquiring at the Fremantle Courthouse on Wednesday into the death of Harold George Waters (15), of Sewell-street, East Fremantle, who was drowned in the Swan River off Preston Point, East Fremantle, on December 29, when a canoe In which he was paddling capsized some distance from the shore, the acting-coroner (Mr. O. F. Payne, J.P.) returned a verdict of accidental drowning and remarked that the lad's death was another example of the danger of boys going on the water In sinkable iron canoes. (reference)