#fp2012 Pink oleander frames Grainger house

Pink oleander frames Grainger house fp52.2.1, a photo by Boroondara Libraries on Flickr.

This house at 36 Oxley Road Hawthorn was built in 1881/82 for market gardener and dairyman, John Cam, a member of a family with long associations with Hawthorn and has been submitted by the City of Boroondara Library Services as part of the Friday Photos 2012 on Flickr. However, today the real significance of this house depends on the fact that composer and musician, Percy Grainger, lived in the house between the ages of five and nine.

The house is typical of weatherboard garden villas of the period for this area and has historical significance for John Cam and Percy Grainger, but also for his father, John Grainger. John Grainger, architect, designed the new Princes Bridge in 1879 and from 1897-1905 was Chief Architect in the West Australian Department of Public Works.

Percy Grainger as a child stands before the house, then named Kilallah, in the photograph below:


The house is commemorated in the City of Hawthorn plaque in the pavement in front of the house for John Cam, John Grainger and Percy Grainger.

Next time you are going down Oxley Road, take a moment to stop and look at this house and the plaque in front of it and remember the people who lived there.