Prospect House Names
Prospect Local History Group volunteers, Kristina Barnett (assisted by Neil Rossiter), has been collating and researching house names in the City of Prospect since 2014 and currently has about 500 names, including those that exist as well as those that have disappeared. Click here: Map to go to the interactive map showing the location of many of the house names.
History of house names
Owners have named their houses as far back as Babylonia and Assyria, and the Roman upper class gave their villas descriptive names. It was in Britain that the naming was popular with earls, dukes and knights naming their manor estate houses as a public claim of the privilege of rank. As the 19th-century middle classes became better-off, they began to name their suburban homes and city townhouses. Sometimes these were named after the town where they were built, after a notable feature of the area or after the architect who designed them or after the owner or their ancestors.
History of house names
Owners have named their houses as far back as Babylonia and Assyria, and the Roman upper class gave their villas descriptive names. It was in Britain that the naming was popular with earls, dukes and knights naming their manor estate houses as a public claim of the privilege of rank. As the 19th-century middle classes became better-off, they began to name their suburban homes and city townhouses. Sometimes these were named after the town where they were built, after a notable feature of the area or after the architect who designed them or after the owner or their ancestors.
Why so many house names in the City of Prospect?
If we look at the pattern of settlement in metropolitan Adelaide, we can understand why we have so many have house names that continued a British empire tradition with most of our settlers originating from England, Scotland and Ireland. Naming a house served a practical purpose in those times to help find and identify a property before the houses were numbered, particularly in the mid-1880s in South Australia when the pattern of odd and even numbering was standardised, and again in 1920, to incorporate the many subdivisions of city acres which had taken place since settlement.
Between July 1838 and November 1841, at least thirty villages were laid out near Adelaide such as Hindmarsh (661 residents), Bowden (393), Thebarton (501), Prospect (109) and Walkerville (202) as well as Goodwood, Kensington, Islington and the German village of Klemzig. These were surrounded by paddocks and farms. The mid-1870s and 1880s resulted in considerable extension of the suburbs with subdivisions.
Choosing a name for a house
There are a number of approaches:
If we look at the pattern of settlement in metropolitan Adelaide, we can understand why we have so many have house names that continued a British empire tradition with most of our settlers originating from England, Scotland and Ireland. Naming a house served a practical purpose in those times to help find and identify a property before the houses were numbered, particularly in the mid-1880s in South Australia when the pattern of odd and even numbering was standardised, and again in 1920, to incorporate the many subdivisions of city acres which had taken place since settlement.
Between July 1838 and November 1841, at least thirty villages were laid out near Adelaide such as Hindmarsh (661 residents), Bowden (393), Thebarton (501), Prospect (109) and Walkerville (202) as well as Goodwood, Kensington, Islington and the German village of Klemzig. These were surrounded by paddocks and farms. The mid-1870s and 1880s resulted in considerable extension of the suburbs with subdivisions.
Choosing a name for a house
There are a number of approaches:
- some physical aspect or architectural feature of the property e.g.The Gables
- some element of the landscape e.g.The Ridge (on Prospect hill)
- the historical use for the property e.g The Lodge (named after the former Freemason Lodge)
- the humorous approach e.g. DJABRINGABEERALONG
- combining words together e.g Carnanobern (named after Brown's 5 daughters Colina,Bernhardine, Carmen, Nancy & Oriana)
- nature e.g. Belle Vue
- elemental (weather) e.g. Sunnyside
- pairing e.g. Bent and Twisted
- geographical e.g. Galaxidi - town in Greece
- nautical e.g. Seaspray
- flora e.g Rose Cottage
- literature e.g. Green Gables
- Indigenous e.g Myoora (Australian Aboriginal meaning 'camp or resting place')
- fauna e.g. The Burrow
- owner or relative e.g. Mitchell House (Sir William Mitchell)
- named after a suburb e.g. Thorngate House
- names that are important but don't actually have anything to do with the history of the house but to unique history of a relationship or stories passed down through generations or a fond memory e.g. Kanimbla from HMAS Kanimbla.
"Home Lea: the gradual demise of the house name"
Broadcast on www.abc.net.au Radio National programs, Life Matters, Sat 22 Apr 2017 at 2:52pm by local Prospect resident, Mike Ladd. Click on the podcast below to listen: 00:00 to 14:27
Broadcast on www.abc.net.au Radio National programs, Life Matters, Sat 22 Apr 2017 at 2:52pm by local Prospect resident, Mike Ladd. Click on the podcast below to listen: 00:00 to 14:27