5–15 Cove Street, Birchgrove NSW 2041

5–15 Cove Street, Federation terrace group (six houses)

This six-house terrace marks the transition from the early subdivisions of Birchgrove to the denser streets of the Federation period. The journal describes land around Cove Street and Grove Street that had initially been occupied by smaller weatherboard houses, with portions bought in 1871 by Anne McKinnon and Catherine Inglis and other lots associated with merchant Thomas Robert Allt.

By the late nineteenth century, older houses and the three stone dwellings known as Sardinia or Ferdinand Terrace had given way to redevelopment. In 1902 Edward Turner began building a terrace of six two-storey brick houses. The article describes good-quality red brickwork, timber verandah detail and modest roof gables as hallmarks of the Federation Queen Anne style. A photograph credited to B Stedman documents part of the row.

Journal 15 contains a source inconsistency: the photograph caption and the survey diagram identify 5–15 Cove Street, while the historical narrative twice prints 5–15 Grove Street. The present research address is 5–15 Cove Street, subject to final contributor confirmation. This is a six-dwelling group and the historic photograph shows ONE unidentified member of the row. It must not be attributed to a specific numbered dwelling without additional proof.

Research and photograph: Pamela Jeffery, “Birchgrove: 1796–1985”, Leichhardt Historical Journal No. 15 (1986), pp. 7–34; photograph on printed p. 16, PDF page 16; photographer B Stedman. Original journal page. Photographic reuse requires separate permission review.

Six-dwelling terrace research GROUP. Photograph is one unidentified individual unit and is not attributed to any house number.