Page 82 - Bulletin 15 2011

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addition of four bedrooms
with balconies and one
large bedroom with double
balcony (one of which
was enclosed) over the six
existing garages at Main

Road level on the south
side of the hotel which ran
at right angles to the main
building.

When Gentry took
ownership of the St. James
Seahurst Hotel prior to alterations of frontage - c. 1912 Hotel in 1925 he employed
Perry to design a large addition on the south side of the hotel, alongside the
Star of the Sea Convent. This double-story extension involved bedrooms,
bathrooms, passages and stairways to both oors.

The other project of importance that John Perry was involved in at St.
James was the restoration of an old whaleUman’s cottage, known as Bude,
on the north corner of Jacobs Ladder and Main Road. (82 Main Road), a
Provincial Heritage Site (23 December 1983). Gerald O’Reilly became the
owner in 1916 of this thatched cottage of vernacular architecture which had
a plain unattractive frontage. Architect William Black thereafter designed an
attractive verandah with entrance steps to the cottage which greatly improved
the frontage. Gerald O’Reilly called on the services of Perry in 1917 who
drew plans for a loft, stairs, two dormer windows and a garage. The Council
requirement ‘that the roof be strengthened and lined with asbestos sheets
as a protection against re’ was strictly adhered to and the end result was a
most attractive cottage which

is a heritage gem, typical of
the early years at St. James.
Perry died at his home in
Constantia on 3 September
1943, aged sixty-nine. His

rst wife May Agnes (neé
Eedes) died in 1933 and he
married Florence Anne (neé
Goodacre) in April 1935/
He had no children by either
marriage.

Bude - c. 1920