| Where is 8 Alice Street,
West End |
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| We know that the family of
Thomas and Annie Orr lived at 8 Alice Street, West End in Brisbane. They
were certainly there in 1914 (Joseph Orr's
enlistment papers attest this) and Thomas remained there until his death
in 1938, writing to his son David from that address, the day before.
(Aldyth Love's (daughter of David) family collection). It wasn't their first place of residence (that will be another page) but it was certainly their longest. Our first problem is actually finding Alice Street because the name has been long changed. Fortunately, I took Joe Orr (son of William Nimmo, son of Thomas) to try and locate the property about a year before his death. He readily navigated us there but the first thing we found was the changed name, now Egbert Street. Unfortunately he couldn't identify which house it was although he thought it may have been the last or second last on the western side. Looking at the facade on 14 one can understand his confusion. |
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| 6 Egbert Street | 8 Egbert Street | 10 Egbert Street | 12 Egbert Street | 14 Egbert Street | 16 Egbert Street |
| Click on a house picture to see an enlargement in a new window. | |||||
Google Mpas provides us an aerial view (below left) with Whereis providing the current numbering scheme (below centre). A visit to the Brisbane City Council Archives gave us the Sewerage Planning map (below right). The BCC investigation also provided us with the knowledge that current number 8 Egbert Street was actually built sometime after September 1925 but before June 1929. We know this because the plan seen below is made up from the original surveyor field books with a single residence per page. Reference to the folio numbers on the main maps indicates that all but current number 8 were captured in sequence in 1925 but current number 8 appears in a later book, indicating it was built in the intervening period. |
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| Google Maps Aerial View Egbert Street | Whereis Maps showing current numbering Egbert street | Water & Sewerage Planning Map 1925 -1929 |
| Click on an image picture to see an enlargement in a new window. | ||
Other resources we have are the photo collection conserved by Aldyth Love (daughter of David, son of Thomas). Below are three photos from that collection. The one at left shows Thomas Orr on the verandah with an unknown astride a horse at the house's left. Of particular interest is the open space to the house's right. The one in the middle is more for interest being circa 1914. However the one at right taken in 1930 shows the area to right taken up with a new house. This is probably enough evidence to confirm that current number 6 Egbert Street is in fact former 8 Alice Street. Reference to the Google Maps aerial view and street frontage also confirm the new house to the right of 8 Alice Street conforms architecturally with current number 8 Egbert Street. Particularly note the entrance landing in the 1930 photo and compare it to the now more enclosed front section evident in an enlarged view of of number 6 Egbert Street from Google street frontages (click on the supplied images for an enlargement). This might be further confirmed by reference to the Post Office Directories (similar to a phone book) which are available at the State Archives (Compton Road). Of course the other source of information here would be the Land Titles records also probably at the State Archives. And the street name change. Well that happend in the late 1930s after the various Brisane Councils amalgamated into one. The Post Master General's department (now Australia Post) had the great idea that there shouldn't be any two streets with the same name in the entire Brisbane area. After not a lot of time the plan fell by the wayside but not before Alice Street, West End became Egbert Street. |
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| Click on an image picture to see an enlargement in a new window. | ||
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 Above: A contemporary UBD map of the West End area.
At Left: A 1924 Map of West End (Fryer Library UQ).
Click here to return to Main Page |
| Page Created 29 December 2014 by John Orr (son of Joseph, son of William
Nimmo, son of Thomas). Last updated 3 January 2015 by John Orr (son of Joseph, son of William Nimmo, son of Thomas). |
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