The Arbordale flats at 232 St George’s Terrace, Perth, existed in a two-storey, semi-detached form until 1938 when the owner, Dr Thomas Robinson of Albany, engaged Harold Krantz to design additions to the buildings. Arbordale had its original buildings remodelled into 16 flats and then a four-storey structure was built above the existing buildings, each storey containing five new flats.
The new six-storey apartment complex contained 36 flats making it the largest block of residential flats in Perth at that time. It featured verandahs and balconies, with full height windows providing unrestricted views of the beautiful Swan River, and modern amenities such as rubbish chutes, an electric elevator and even car garages. The building also accommodated a communal kitchen, servery and dining area designed to hold 50-60 people, a novel idea for the time and reflective of Krantz’s functional design ethic. Arbordale was constructed for £17,150 by Totterdell Bros Ltd of Perth. Turvey Bros of Beaufort Street supplied the built-in and stand alone furnishings, and Ames and Winter of Murray Street fitted out the kitchens. Landscape Garden Experts of Maylands created lawns and gardens with bitumen pathways.
View of Merlin Court and Arbordale Flats, September 1951, 235609PD, Illustrations Ltd, St George's Terrace, Perth, State Library of Western Australia
During 1939 the social pages of Perth’s newspapers carried articles with the names of tenants taking up apartments at the modern, new Arbordale flats. They included such people as Archibald Stewart, civil servant, and his family; Cecil Mason, the general manager of Greater Australasian Films, and his wife; and young Maurice De Feu and his new wife, popular socialite Peggy Taylor; both children of prominent Perth businessmen who would shortly be involved in a scandalous divorce. Unfortunately the Arbordale flats were demolished around the 1980s to make way for commercial premises.
