32 Eric Street, Taree is a modest, yet eminently practical residential development, which has stood the test of time.
Residential development of this site was initiated when, in 1924, Hugh Robert Crawford, a teamster of Taree is shown as the purchaser of Lot 20 in DP 10062 and described in Taree Municipal Council Rate Books as part of Debreceny’s Subdivision. Crawford obtained a mortgage from the Government Savings Bank of NSW and built a cottage here.1
On Hugh’s death in 1926 the property passed to his widow, Eva, and thence to various owners before being sold to Norman Austin Jones and his wife Mavis in 1962.2
Norman Jones described himself as a builder and plans were drawn up for the erection of six attached single storey units. MidCoast Council retains a microfiche copy of the plan accompanying Building Application 64/65 which details these units.
Apart from the removal of evergreen trees at the corner of each carport, the external appearance of this development seems virtually unaltered since the day it was built.3 Each unit still displays colourful external detailing very evocative of the late 1950s/60s. The development is a rare survivor from a period in which much of the development in Taree was very conservative.
Author: Penny Teerman
References:
1 NSW Land Registry Services online – Vol 3679 Fol 3.
2 Ibid.
3 Google street view photography 2010.
