55 Sewell Street — Streets of East Freo

ARCHITECTURE

Federation / Gable Terrace w Gothic Influences

No. 55 (previously was no. 115) Sewell Street is a pair of single story cottages constructed in limestone and brickwork with rendered decorative details. The place features a pair of gabled corrugated iron roofs. The gables are highly decorative. It is a fine expression of a duplex in Federation 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 part wall and are flanked by pairs of double hung sash windows. All openings have brick quoins. The brickwork to the walls to No 57 have been rendered.

HISTORY

1912 In sad and loving remembrance of my dear father, John James Williams, who departed this life on August 10, 1910, at 115 Sewell-street, East Fremantle. Gone but not forgotten. (reference)
1927 Death on June 14, at 115 Sewell street, Fremantle, Michael Penman, dearly loved youngest son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Michael Penman, Victoria, loving brother Mrs. R. G. Collier, Fremantle, uncle Ethel, Ruby, Amy, Irine, Inet, Alma, Myrtle, and Eileen, after a short illness.The Friends of the late Mr. Michael Penman, of the Mt. Lyell Chemical Works, Rocky Bay, North Fremantle, are respectfully invited to follow his remains to the place of interment, the Church of England Cemetery, Fremantle. The Funeral will leave his late residence, 115 Sewell-street, East Fremantle...Member of The Metropolitan Super Phosphate and Chemical Workers' Industrial Union. (reference)
From 1913 - 1925: Andrew H Knox lived at 26 Glyde St.
1937 ‘’In my opinion the driver and fireman should have been able to see the obstruction on the line,' said Acting Coroner Christie, J. P., today. He delivered this rider at the termination of an inquest which he heard into the death of John Lightfoot, 35 year-old railway employee, who was killed on June 15 while trying to drag a rail tricycle from the path of an oncoming train at Cottesloe… An eye-witness of the fatality, Andrew Knox, told the Coroner that he was near the Napier-street crossing about 8.50 a.m. on June 15. While Knox was working on the railway lines he saw Lightfoot approach on his tricycle from the direction of Fremantle. He left his machine on the rails and came over to the ganger in charge of Knox's party, and spoke to him. 'I heard the ganger shout and the whistle of a train at the same moment,' Knox said. 'Then I saw Lightfoot struggling to shift his trike. The train struck the trike and the trike struck Lightfoot. 'Lightfoot somersaulted through the air, falling two or three feet away…’’ (reference)