Fassifern (Demolished) 46 Barkly Street

The house was on a square lot just south of the corner of Barkly and Alma Roads, but it is uncertain when it ws created. Swiss born James Pfund, who worked for the Public Works Department, purchased the lot in 1871. He built a small house in the middle of the block, as shown in the 1873 Vardy map. In 1863 in Richmond he had married Elise Tschaggeny, who was from the same Swiss town of Thun. Madame Pfund was soon teaching at the school attached to the Congregational Church which faced Alma Road and backed onto their property. In 1878 they took the step of purchasing Oberwyl in Burnett Street, which they could see the back of from their front garden, to establish a girls school run by Madame Pfund. The school operated right up to 1931. 

An auction notice of the sale of the contents of their house in Barkly Street house in 1886 notes it was called Fassifern by then. A later owner was the Hart family, who feature in a photo taken in the front lawn in 1905, still known as Fassifern. The arrangement of this house follows that shown in the 1896 MMBW plan, which is either the same house with southern extensions facing the garden, or a completely new one. The location of the house does not exactly match that of 1873, but that plan is more approximate than accurately surveyed. 

The present faintly Spanish style flats on the corner of Barkly and Alma occupy the site of Fassifern along with the corner lot, and were probably built c1970.