Lyndoch Road 12c Euke House
| Place type: | Building |
|---|---|
| Also known as: | Euke |
| Address: | 12c Lyndoch Road |
| Town or Locality: | Gawler East |
| Year constructed: | c. 1874 |
| Built by: | William Wilson Smith |
LYNDOCH ROAD 12C “ EUKE HOUSE”
This stately two storey home on Lyndoch Road was known as ‘Euke House’ in the 1870’s and has been the home of one Gawler Mayor, Edward Lucas and one of Gawler’s most successful industrialists, viz; Frederick May, as well as numerous Gawler business/professional people and other townsfolk.
Euke House is situated on land that was known as ‘Mahony’s Paddock’ prior to about 1873 when it was subdivided by Eliza Sarah Mahony – widow of the late Dr Mahony and daughter of Gawler’s first settlers, the Reid Family. The house was originally situated on an area larger than one acre but has since been reduced to approximately 1/3 of an acre due to subsequent subdivision (late 1950s or early 1960s?), hence the address now being 12C in lieu of 12.
It would appear that the house was built around 1874 and first owned by the farrier, William Wilson Smith. See attached title sequence document for a list of owners since that time.
As mentioned above, the house was also owned by Gawler industrialist, John Frederick May who was at the helm of the business May Brothers along with his brother Alfred. A quote from the book “The Days of May” by Mervyn Wyke Evans describes the surprise that Frederick gave his wife Mary Ann when he walked the family to their new home :- “Do you like that house over there? The one with the beautiful garden? ‘Euke House, you mean? Yes, it’s very nice’ ‘Would you like to live there?’ ‘Of course I would’ ‘Well, I bought it yesterday “
The house has in recent times had a modern addition to the rear and over the years has had various internal alterations and embellishments but had remained largely architecturally intact.
Prepared by: Geoff Watson ( February 2020 )
Acknowledged sources:
Lands Titles Office
Bunyip Newspaper
“The Days of May” by Mervyn Wyke Evans
Please <click here> to view photos of Euke House.
Please <click here> to view the Land Title Sequence for Euke House, as researched by Geoff Watson.
DESCRIPTION:
This grand double-fronted late-Victorian villa is elevated from street, with a semi-basement level visible below the verandah structure. The façade, constructed of stone rubble, brought to course with rendered quoins and dressings, has been overpainted and is surrounded on three sides by a concave verandah. The corrugated metal hipped roof features bracketed eaves and very large rendered chimneys with moulded caps. The central arch-headed door is timber-framed with a timber four-panel door and fanlight, flanked on either side by timber-framed, double-hung windows. The corrugated metal verandah is highly-detailed and features a central gablet with cast-iron detail, scalloped valance, and cast-iron panels to the frieze. The verandah is surrounded by a cast-iron balustrade and accessed by central masonry steps, flanked on each side by splayed, curved walls, rendered, with moulded coping and piers to the top and bottom. A non-original brush fence defines the boundary.
STATEMENT OF HERITAGE VALUE:
This grand late-Victorian villa, known as ‘Euk’, displays historical, economic or social themes that are of importance to the local area, as an expression of the pattern of development in Gawler as new subdivisions were created in response to the town’s economic growing prosperity and increasing population during the 1870s. The residence is a fine and substantially externally intact example of a large late-Victorian era villa set in large grounds and displaying local building materials. ‘Euk’ is associated with several notable individuals and local businesses, including J C Wilkinson, auctioneer and Mayor of Gawler, Frederick May of May Bros. Engineering Works Co Ltd, and Edward Lucas, draper and later Mayor of Gawler and Member of Parliament.
BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Town of Gawler was first surveyed and planned by Light, Finnis & Co in 1839 as part of the Gawler Special Survey sponsored by a consortium of wealthy investors including Henry Dundas Murray, John Reid & others. The original town plan devised by Light and laid out by William Jacob comprised 240 acres, made up of 100 acres of allotments (as 200 half-acre allotments) and 140 acres of streets, parklands, city squares, churches, cemeteries and other public places. The emergence of successful local industries, and the completion of the Gawler Railway connecting with Adelaide in 1857 led to further significant growth of the township, with a series of new subdivisions opening up to the north, south, east and west. During the mid to late nineteenth century, Gawler enjoyed a prosperous period as South Australia's second most important town.
John Reid, one of the principal investors in the Gawler Special Survey and Gawler’s first white settler, established ‘Clonlea’ a sheep run and farm on his 630 acres on the North Para River. Unfortunately he borrowed heavily against his property from William Paxton, and after he experienced substantial losses due to drought and disease in his flock Paxton foreclosed on the loan and took over most of the land. The remnant 40 acres of the Reid estate was subsequently inherited by his daughter Eliza Sarah Mahony.
In 1873 auctioneer J C Wilkinson announced the forthcoming sale of 50 suburban blocks created by the subdivision of ‘Mrs Mahony’s paddock’ in Gawler East. In 1874 William Wilson Smith, farrier, of Gawler, purchased adjacent Allotments 277 and 346 with frontages to Lyndoch Road. In 1875 he sold them to John Charles Wilkinson, the auctioneer who had conducted the sale the previous year. Wilkinson was at that time a prominent businessman having set up as an auctioneer in Gawler in 1863. In 1875 he was conducting his own auction business at the Old Bushman’s Yards. He would later serve as a town councillor for five years and was Mayor of Gawler in 1882 and 1883.
It is assumed that J C Wilkinson built the house now standing on the land between 1875 and 1879, as in May 1879 the property was again offered for sale, described as a ‘very handsome residence in Gawler East, fronting Lyndoch-road, containing nine rooms, besides bathroom, pantry etc with gardens well laid out and planted, subject to a mortgage of £730’. Also offered for sale was the adjoining allotment 430. Wilkinson had apparently borrowed heavily against the property and his estate was ‘assigned’ for the benefit of his creditors.
The title was transferred to Joseph Wilcox the younger, storekeeper, and William Roe Lewis, gentleman, both of Gawler, in June 1879.
Frederick May, then an engineer with James Martin & Co, and later founder with his brother Alfred of May Brothers Engineering Works, purchased the two allotments in just a month later on 14 July 1879. May mortgaged the property to Samuel Springbell and Walter James Lawes in April 1880. The mortgage was discharged in 1885, and soon after May and his family, which by then included eight children, moved to the 14-roomed residence known as Sunny Brae, on the corner of Fifteenth and Sixteenth Street. May leased the Lyndoch Road property to Charles Woodman for a term of four years from 20 February 1888. It was then leased to Edward Lucas for a further two years, after which the title was transferred to Lucas in May 1894, when the property had a rated annual value £60.
Irishman Edward Lucas was at the time described as a Gawler merchant, having taken over the established drapery business of J J Wilcox in 1886. He was resident in Gawler for a total of 15 years, during which time he made a significant contribution to civic affairs, serving as mayor in 1 893 and 1894. In 1901 he was elected to the Legislative Council and served as leader of the Liberal party in the Upper House. He served on the War Council from 1914-1918 and was vice chairperson of the State Recruiting Committee. After the war he was appointed Agent-General for South Australia in London from 1918 to 1925. He was knighted in 1921.
In 1901 after Edward Lucas removed to Adelaide to pursue his political career, the property was sold to Arthur William Barlow of Gawler, a successful boot maker with a chain of stores across regional South Australia. In 1905 Barlow moved his main business operations to Adelaide (where the company still trades as a family business today), and transferred the property to Mary Martha Schulz, wife of Frederick Charles Schulz of Gawler, a boot merchant, to whom he had sold his Murray Street business. The property changed hands again several times over the course of the twentieth century, at one time serving as the home and medical surgery of Dr Gemmel Wilson Tassie in the 1960s.
The property was extended in 1920 with the addition of a small piece of land at the rear from Allotment 430, and later ceded a portion of its Lyndoch Road frontage to the adjacent Allotment 276, but still retains its large garden setting. The house is known as ‘Euke House’ (or sometimes ‘Uke’ or ‘Euko’) and it is believed the name may have been conferred by Frederick May. It was certainly used during the Mays’ period of residence, though to date it has not been possible to discover an explanation for its meaning.
Acknowledgments
This report has been prepared by the following people:
• Nancy Cromar (Flightpath Architects)
• Deborah Morgan (Flightpath Architects)
• Kate Paterson (Flightpath Architects)
• Douglas Alexander (Flightpath Architects)
The study team would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people:
• David Petruzzella (Strategic Planner; Town of Gawler)
• Jacinta Weiss (Cultural Heritage Centre Coordinator; Town of Gawler)
• Jane Strange (Senior Development and Strategic Policy Officer; Town of Gawler)
Gawler History Team Inc. thanks:
Flightpath Architects, Ryan Viney and the Town of Gawler for allowing us access to this important document of Gawler History.
www.flightpatharchitects.com.au
.
Related Articles
- Gawler's Grand Houses
- May Bros and Co
- Wilkinson (Mayor) John Charles
- May Frederick
- Lucas (Mayor) Edward
References
- LTO CT 197/27; CT 1016/130; CT 1175/197; CT 2502/142; CT 2912/89. Hignett & Company Gawler Heritage Study Stage 1 December 1981
- Advertiser Thursday 16 December 1897 p7
- Bunyip Saturday 1 March 1873 p2; Friday 8 October 1886 p2; Friday 24 December 1897
- p1; Friday 8 May 1953 p1
- Gawler Times 21 February 1873 p2
- Gawler History website https://gawlerhistory.com/Main_Page
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