968
Caversham
Main
Collection SummaryCaversham Cottage
built c1880DescriptionCaversham was built around 1880 at 63 Smart Street, Fairfield and was the lifetime home of Eva Stone (nee Jeffress), who was born in the house on 8 November 1894. To save it from demolition in 1986, the Stone family offered the house to Fairfield City Museum, where half the house was rebuilt and new internal wooden panelling was installed.
Eva’s grandfather, William Jeffress, migrated to Australia from England, with his wife and two children. One of their children, Edward Wesley Jeffress married Mary Ann Garlick in 1888. For twenty pounds, Edward and Mary Ann bought the block of land that is now 61 and 63 Smart Street, Fairfield, on which Caversham stood. Mary Ann Garlick had also migrated to Australia from England, on an eight-week voyage by ship in 1885, and Caversham cottage was named after the town in Reading, England, in which Mary Ann lived. Mary Ann brought her possessions out in a tin trunk, now on display in the cottage.
Edward and Mary Ann had two children, both born in Caversham: Annie (born 1892) and Eva (born 1894). At the time, the surrounding area was bush land, and there were only three houses on Smart Street.
Caversham originally had four rooms with a central hallway, and an outhouse kitchen. The first room on the left was the lounge room, on the right was the first bedroom, and at the back left was the kitchen and second bedroom on the right. The family had a wood stove in one corner for heating, kerosene lamps and candles for lighting, and a gramophone on which they played records.
At the age of five, Eva began school at Fairfield Public School, a one-building school that accommodated children of all ages. The schoolmaster was Mr Willis and his house was within the school grounds, facing The Horsley Drive. Eva left school at age 14.
Eva’s father was a Salvationist, and her mother, Mary Ann was a Methodist, so religion played a large part in the upbringing of Annie and Eva. The family was also very musical and Edward played the accordion and sang, and sometimes danced while he was playing. Annie also played the accordion and both she and Eva were leaders in the Methodist church choir. From age 12, Eva learnt to play the organ, read music and sing, and she performed in concerts and plays at the Fairfield School of Arts.
In their yard, Annie and Eva played games such as hopscotch and drop the handkerchief. As teenagers they would go swimming in Prospect Creek and attend gatherings at Latty’s Pleasure Grounds. Eva remembers:
'…we would take the boat, and we’d go up the river and pack our lunch. With our best boyfriend, we would go up there. With the billy tea…most beautiful when it was flavoured with smoke… '
There were grape vines around the house, and a well out the back, where the family took drinking water and kept butter in a bucket to keep it cool during summer. In later years the family bought an ice chest and the ice was delivered wrapped in a hessian bag.
Eva and Annie carried water from a nearby pond every morning for washing, as there was no plumbing in the cottage. Vegetables were bought from a Chinese market garden and from about 1911, meat was delivered to the house by George Paine, the local butcher. Wood was also delivered by horse and cart by Mr Putsley from the woodyard. The postman delivered the mail twice a day and blew his whistle outside the house to let the family know the mail was delivered. Milk, bread, bacon, cheese and butter were also delivered, by Mr Eddy from Nelson & Eddy’s Store. If the family paid cash, the girls were given a small bag of lollies.
In 1925 Eva married Alfred Ernest Stone, a storeman and packer. During World War I, Alfred’s lungs had been damaged by gassing in the trenches, and as a result he died in 1937. Eva struggled alone to raise their three children, Malcolm, Gordon and Joan (all born in the front bedroom of Caversham, where Eva had herself been born). Gordon remembers living in Caversham until he was aged 12, and then the family moved to a house they built next door. Eva searched for discarded newspapers to light the wood stove, and traded coupons for food. To keep down costs, she grew her own vegetables, kept goats to produce milk, and also chickens and ducks that she would fatten up to eat at Christmas. They had a dog named Patch, and Joan used to dress him up in a baby’s coat and bonnet and wheel him up the street in a pram.
Eva Stone died in 2001, aged 106, having lived all her life in Fairfield, for 97 years at Smart Street, and the majority of it in Caversham.
The interior reflects the furnishings and house contents of about 1906, when Eva and Annie were young girls, as seen in their photograph of that date on the wall. The mantelpiece and books on the shelf in Caversham are original as is the tin trunk, bonnet box and Willow pattern meat dish, which all belonged to Mary-Ann Jeffress, Eva and Annie’s mother.
In front of the house are original steps from Canley Grange, the house of Sir Henry Parkes in Canley Vale.
built c1880DescriptionCaversham was built around 1880 at 63 Smart Street, Fairfield and was the lifetime home of Eva Stone (nee Jeffress), who was born in the house on 8 November 1894. To save it from demolition in 1986, the Stone family offered the house to Fairfield City Museum, where half the house was rebuilt and new internal wooden panelling was installed.
Eva’s grandfather, William Jeffress, migrated to Australia from England, with his wife and two children. One of their children, Edward Wesley Jeffress married Mary Ann Garlick in 1888. For twenty pounds, Edward and Mary Ann bought the block of land that is now 61 and 63 Smart Street, Fairfield, on which Caversham stood. Mary Ann Garlick had also migrated to Australia from England, on an eight-week voyage by ship in 1885, and Caversham cottage was named after the town in Reading, England, in which Mary Ann lived. Mary Ann brought her possessions out in a tin trunk, now on display in the cottage.
Edward and Mary Ann had two children, both born in Caversham: Annie (born 1892) and Eva (born 1894). At the time, the surrounding area was bush land, and there were only three houses on Smart Street.
Caversham originally had four rooms with a central hallway, and an outhouse kitchen. The first room on the left was the lounge room, on the right was the first bedroom, and at the back left was the kitchen and second bedroom on the right. The family had a wood stove in one corner for heating, kerosene lamps and candles for lighting, and a gramophone on which they played records.
At the age of five, Eva began school at Fairfield Public School, a one-building school that accommodated children of all ages. The schoolmaster was Mr Willis and his house was within the school grounds, facing The Horsley Drive. Eva left school at age 14.
Eva’s father was a Salvationist, and her mother, Mary Ann was a Methodist, so religion played a large part in the upbringing of Annie and Eva. The family was also very musical and Edward played the accordion and sang, and sometimes danced while he was playing. Annie also played the accordion and both she and Eva were leaders in the Methodist church choir. From age 12, Eva learnt to play the organ, read music and sing, and she performed in concerts and plays at the Fairfield School of Arts.
In their yard, Annie and Eva played games such as hopscotch and drop the handkerchief. As teenagers they would go swimming in Prospect Creek and attend gatherings at Latty’s Pleasure Grounds. Eva remembers:
'…we would take the boat, and we’d go up the river and pack our lunch. With our best boyfriend, we would go up there. With the billy tea…most beautiful when it was flavoured with smoke… '
There were grape vines around the house, and a well out the back, where the family took drinking water and kept butter in a bucket to keep it cool during summer. In later years the family bought an ice chest and the ice was delivered wrapped in a hessian bag.
Eva and Annie carried water from a nearby pond every morning for washing, as there was no plumbing in the cottage. Vegetables were bought from a Chinese market garden and from about 1911, meat was delivered to the house by George Paine, the local butcher. Wood was also delivered by horse and cart by Mr Putsley from the woodyard. The postman delivered the mail twice a day and blew his whistle outside the house to let the family know the mail was delivered. Milk, bread, bacon, cheese and butter were also delivered, by Mr Eddy from Nelson & Eddy’s Store. If the family paid cash, the girls were given a small bag of lollies.
In 1925 Eva married Alfred Ernest Stone, a storeman and packer. During World War I, Alfred’s lungs had been damaged by gassing in the trenches, and as a result he died in 1937. Eva struggled alone to raise their three children, Malcolm, Gordon and Joan (all born in the front bedroom of Caversham, where Eva had herself been born). Gordon remembers living in Caversham until he was aged 12, and then the family moved to a house they built next door. Eva searched for discarded newspapers to light the wood stove, and traded coupons for food. To keep down costs, she grew her own vegetables, kept goats to produce milk, and also chickens and ducks that she would fatten up to eat at Christmas. They had a dog named Patch, and Joan used to dress him up in a baby’s coat and bonnet and wheel him up the street in a pram.
Eva Stone died in 2001, aged 106, having lived all her life in Fairfield, for 97 years at Smart Street, and the majority of it in Caversham.
The interior reflects the furnishings and house contents of about 1906, when Eva and Annie were young girls, as seen in their photograph of that date on the wall. The mantelpiece and books on the shelf in Caversham are original as is the tin trunk, bonnet box and Willow pattern meat dish, which all belonged to Mary-Ann Jeffress, Eva and Annie’s mother.
In front of the house are original steps from Canley Grange, the house of Sir Henry Parkes in Canley Vale.
Photograph
Object
Connections
PeopleEva Stone (nee Jeffress)SuburbFairfield (Suburb)Place[1] 63 Smart Street, FairfieldCollectionVintage Village
Caversham. Fairfield City Heritage Collection, accessed 14/02/2026, https://heritagecollection.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/968