Herbert Nathaniel Davis


Herbert Nathaniel Davis was an Australian architect responsible for designing a number of the extant heritage buildings in Fremantle, Western Australia.
He died at the age of 32, and was interred in the Jewish section of Fremantle Cemetery.

Buildings

Davis' portfolio included:
Davis was born on 20 December 1867 in Sydney, New South Wales, into a Jewish family. His father Eleazor M. Davis was a businessman, importing and selling toys from their shop "The Civet Cat" in King Street in central Sydney. His mother Frances Matilda Lazarus raised Herbert and his elder brother Edward Davis, and suffered a number of miscarriages between the births of the two boys. Both his parents were born in England.
In December 1865, a fire destroyed a great deal of the shop's stock — more than they were insured for. Five years before this the business had also briefly been declared insolvent. The boys' mother died in 1888, when Davis was 19.
Not much is known of Davis' education, but by the age of 21 he was a member of the Hebrew Literary and Debating Society, debating at the Great Synagogue. Soon after this he moved to Western Australia.

Architectural practice

After briefly setting up business in 1892 in the Swan Chambers building in Hay Street in the Perth CBD, Davis moved to Fremantle where he was to have a successful career, albeit one that lasted little more than a decade.