Building Details - Architects of South Australia

No. 16 Ramsgate Street is a curious building; its development non-plussed the clerks of the Glenelg Corporation and its appearance continues to puzzle passers-by. For a long period, it was erroneously assigned the number of the property next door. A mixture of Medieval and Queen Anne Revival and modern elements, the house comes forward egregiously in an otherwise dowdy neighbourhood.

In the name of his wife, one of two prominent, local speculating builders, John Weston, acquired Lot 19 - immediately to the south of No. 16 which occupies Lot 20 - and built the present 6-roomed house there in 1903 (C.T. 699-68). In 1906, this house (No. 18) was bought by Ernest Bertram Boucaut (1877-1940), a draughtsman in the railways section of the Engineer-in-Chief's department (A 20.4.1938, 25; 29.10.1940, 6). Ernest obtained it on a mortgage from his father, the Honourable James Penn Boucaut KCMG, who lived on the outer border of Old Glenelg. Within three months, however, Ernest - for reasons perhaps only known within the family* - saw the property transferred to the Executor Trustee & Agency Company and his father-in-law, George Brandt, a mining magnate. Ernest had married the fourth of the Brandts' five daughters, Ada, just eight days before the transaction was recorded (BDM). The newly-weds occupied the house, remaining there for eight or nine years.

Almost simultaneously, the same sequence of events was followed in respect of Lot 21 which lies behind, to the east, both No. 18 and No. 16. Lot 21 was not to be built upon until 1928 or 1929 (Glenelg Rates Assessments). Lot 20, described on Certificate of Title 228/116, had a more complex succession of owners, but Sir James Boucaut was able to buy it, vacant, late in 1906 and consign it also, like Lots 19 and 21, to the Executor Trustee & Agency Co. and George Brandt early in 1909. According to the Rates Assessments of the Glenelg Corporation, a 5-roomed house was built on Lot 20 in 1911 or 1912 - the uncertainty arises because the records for 1912 (describing developments of the previous year) are missing. One half of the house - divided by a central hall under an east-west ridgeline - consists of a living room opening into a dining room in front of a kitchen; the other half comprises a porch in front of a main bedroom, a study-bedroom, and a bathroom.

By 1912, Ernest and Ada, together with their son, Ian Penn (b. 1908), and daughter, Erna Dorothy (b. 1911), are occupying, nominally at least, both No. 18 and No. 16 (BDM; Directories). It is then decided that an extra 'best' bedroom should be added to No. 16. Frank Hedley Counsell, an architect living at Somerton, called tenders for this work in April 1914. Possibly because a minor addition would not have attracted the bids of the better builders, the work was advertised to be, 'Erection of a Residence, Ramsgate St, Glenelg, for the Executor Trustee & Agency Co.' (R 13.4.1914, 3). It must be assumed that the entirely matching Stage 1 of the building was already Counsell's doing. (Leonard Boucaut (1870-1935), one of Ernest's older brothers, had married one of Ada's older sisters, Clara (1878-1948), in 1911 - following, perhaps tellingly, the death of her father (BDM). In the same year, he commissioned a wedding-present cottage (A 26.4.1911, 2, presently 'Little Undermount') to be built in the lee of Mt Barker from Counsell (1864-1933) who had attended Leonard's school, Prince Alfred College.)^ Ernest Boucaut, similarly a PAC scholar, is likely to have encountered Counsell between 1899-1903 when the architect was seconded to the Engineer-in-Chief's department to rebuild the Adelaide Railway Station (Burgess, vol. 1, 543). Even if, as it is said, Ernest transferred to the Architect-in-Chief's department, a social or professional acquaintance was probable.

Since Ernest was athletic and clubbable, he had established a north-south tennis court on Lot 21. To provide a covered area, or pavilion, in which to entertain tennis-playing guests, the best bedroom was raised above a tile-floored, open-ended 'breezeway' overlooking the court. To give access to the upper floor, a staircase was inserted parallel to the porch, on the inside. Reduced in size to accommodate the stairs and a passage beside them, the existing main bedroom then took its (limited) daylight from a window broken into the breezeway. Externally, the two stages of building are easily identified. A broad gable had embraced the initial five rooms. This gable was truncated and a parapet built up for the new wing, considerably set back, to abut. It is not unreasonable to suggest that the balcony onto which the new bedroom opens once offered a glimpse of the gulf where Ernest sailed competitively; at one point he was elected commodore of the Holdfast Bay Yacht Club (A 29.10.1940, 6).

In order to build Stage 2 of No. 16 on Lot 20, a little more than its 50' (15.24m) width was needed to the south. 12'2" (3.71m) was therefore excised from the broader Lot 19. At the same time, a further 5'10" (1.78m) was sliced from the east end, alongside the tennis court on Lot 21, to create a private lane between the back garden of No. 16 and the public side street. Once No. 16 included three bedrooms, No. 18 could be let. From 1916 onwards, Douglas Winterbottom, a surveyor, rented the house (Glenelg Rates Assessments; Directories). Not until it was sold by the Executor & Trustee Agency Co. on behalf of the Boucauts would the changed boundaries become apparent on the title document.

When George Brandt died in 1911, his widow, Elizabeth (née Giesecke), stayed at their old address, 81 Payneham Road. Then, in 1928, when Elizabeth was 77 and Ernest Boucaut was 51, the tennis court on Lot 21 was replaced by a non-descript house. Elizabeth Brandt moved into this house, No. 27 Alma Street, soon to be renumbered and renamed No. 1 Baker Street (Directories). Dorothy, the youngest of the Brandt daughters, joined her mother in the early 1930s and remained until she married at the age of 48 in 1939. Her grandniece, Gill, recalled taking a short cut down the lane from No. 16 to visit 'Aunty Dorrie' and Grandma Brandt. Dorothy's sister, Clara, also joined the household in 1935, following the death of Leonard Boucaut. By the time Grandma Brandt died in 1938, Erna had travelled to Melbourne to study nursing (Ex inf. present owners No. 16). Clara Boucaut outlived her mother by ten years during her 13 years of widowhood - much the same fate endured by Ada who survived not only the death of Ernest, aged 63, in 1940 but also that of her son, Lt Ian Boucaut, who was killed in naval action in November 1941, aged just 33. Gill, Ian's daughter (b. 1941), will never have known her father (WA 23.12.1941, 1).

It would seem that Clara and Dorothy combined their shares of their mother's estate to buy Lot 37, Weewanda Street, Glenelg, on which Pennsylvania stands (C.T. 1713-119). It is the writer's contention that Ernest Boucaut designed this group of four flats just before he died (together with another group in matching style built by and for John Weston's son, Arthur, in Pier Street, Glenelg (C.T. 1216-69 & 1329-84)) and ownership of it duly passed to Ada and Erna in 1941. Erna succeeded to No. 16 Ramsgate Street after the death of her mother, and the expiry of the trust, in 1960 (when she was living at Pennsylvania), and let it for seven years before relinquishing the titles to both Lot 20 and Lot 21. Lot 19 had been disposed of three years earlier (Glenelg Rates Assessments).

*Mr Brandt died in 1911 but the land was held in trust until near the date of the death of Ada (1959), perhaps to protect her interest - in case her husband wished to sell it against a parental will.

^Examination of the former extensive Boucaut landholdings within and around the Dalmeney Park and Quambi properties near Mt Barker suggests that the cottage survives, modified, under the name of 'Little Undermount', near the intersection of Summit and Springs Road, Mt Barker. It sets no precedent for the design of the Glenelg house.

Acknowledgments:- Mr Stephen Ingman, Holdfast Bay History Centre; Mr Graham Bald, Mt Barker; the owners, present and since 1988, of No. 16 Ramsgate Street.

Giles Walkley, 2017

Citation details: Walkley, Giles, 'Boucaut Residence', Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2018, Architects of South Australia:[http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/build_full.asp?B_ID=1425]

SOURCES
Books
Burgess, H. T. (ed.), Cyclopedia of SA, vol. 1, Cyclopedia Co., SA, 1907
Sands & McDougall SA Directories, 1884-1973 ('Directories')
Various authors, Indices of South Australian Births, Deaths & Marriages, 1836-1942, SAG&H Society ('BDM')
Newspaper/Journal Articles
The Advertiser (A), The Register (R), The West Australian (WA)

Archival
Rates Assessment Books, Corporation of the City of Glenelg - transcribed by Mr Stephen Ingman, Holdfast Bay History Centre, Brighton
Certificates of Title, Lands Titles Office, SA Government ('C.T.')

Electronic
SAILIS.sa.gov.au
No. 16 (Lot 20) Ramsgate St: C.T. 228-116, 2320-182, 2322-39, 3514-110
No. 18 (Lot 19) Ramsgate St: C.T. 699-68
No. 1 (Lot 21) Baker St: C.T. 699-67, 2322-39, 3514-111
TROVE.nla.gov.au

Other
Information supplied, 2017, by the owners since 1988 of 16 Ramsgate St
Information supplied by Mr Graham Bald, local historian, Mt Barker
Measured drawing, 2017, by Giles Walkley of 16 Ramsgate St: copy at Architecture Museum