Stanley Street house

They had married in 1937, an auspicious year for newly-weds hoping to own a home of their own. In March 1937 the NSW government enacted legislation enabling the formation of co-operative building societies. Fifty-eight new societies were registered within three months, including the Earlwood-Canterbury no.1 society. Four years later Mabel Williams’ house was built in a suburban ‘moderne’ style with finance from the Earlwood-Canterbury District No.6 Cooperative Building Society.

The house provided shelter for Mabel and her family for more than forty years and was also home for many years to Mabel’s parents. When photographed in 1992, the front of the house with its curving face-brickwork walls and fence, wrought iron detailing and brick lined concrete paths looked barely altered since built. Inside the house, intact original features included the ziggurat shaped tiled bathroom and ceramic fireplace and the sandblasted or gravé glass doors depicting an English galleon, a popular decorative motif of the late 1930s and 40s. The fluorescent lighting and Australian wildflower carpets are later additions possibly from around 1960 while the collection of post-war concrete garden ornament demonstrates the long Williams family ownership.

Photographer: Louise Lister Date

Photographed: 1992

Original image format: transparency film: 6x6cms

Copyright: Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Photograph © Louise Lister