SUCH was the interest in this Solomon Street home the queue at its first home-open stretched from the gorgeous stained glass front door and down the stairs of the elevated verandah.
The crowd surged through the huge rooms, with their massive four-metre ceilings and there was a party-like atmosphere, punctuated with “oohs” and “aahs”.
Built in 1900, this heritage gem has been restored to federation glory, with ceiling roses, wide aged-jarrah floors—and lovely fireplaces.
There’s a particularly fine art nouveau tiled fireplace in the main bedroom, a generous space with an impressive black and white federation ensuite and separate loo.
The original section of the home contains four of the five bedrooms, along with a classically dignified formal lounge, a huge room with double full-length sash windows to the verandah.
Old meets new in the dining room as you step through french doors into the kitchen and huge open-plan area, where a red wall is dramatically striking against the soaring white timber cathedral ceiling.
The kitchen is galley-style, with a sweep of black bench space and a huge five-burner, plus grill, stove in the central bench/breakfast bar.
Lovely frosted glass doors guard a walk-in pantry, and there’s no shortage of soft-close drawers, along with a huge bank of cupboards that almost touch the ceiling.
A wall of glass, and french doors, frame a fantastic timber-ceilinged cupola-style alfresco area.
“Look mummy it’s a pond where rocks live,” a little girl says, pointing delightedly to a smooth-rock water feature forming a “river” at the base of a waist-high wall onto the pool.
The vendor is a well-known potter and her studio delighted kids and adults with its racks of colourful pots and stunning ceramic lampshades over a bench.
In a previous life the studio was an apartment, complete with kitchen and bathroom—and if art isn’t your thing it’s just the shot for ageing parents, teens, visitors or AirBnB (cough).
Sitting on 607sqm there’s room in the sheltered garden for a swathe of grass for the kids to play, and the neatest shed in town.
Solomon Street is one of Fremantle’s most prestigious addresses and this delightful home is smack-bang in the centre, and walking distance to the CBD. John Curtin College of the Arts and Fremantle Primary School are even closer.
This is Fremantle with a capital F.
by JENNY D’ANGER
74 Solomon Street, Fremantle
offers above $1.399 million
Peter Clements | 0415 920 920
Mint Real Estate | 9284 6000
