Herbert Nathaniel Davis

Herbert Nathaniel Davis (20 December 1867 – 14 March 1900) was an Australian architect responsible for designing a number of the extant heritage buildings in Fremantle, Western Australia.
He died at the young age of 32, and was interred in the Jewish section of Fremantle Cemetery.

Davis' portfolio included:

• 1893: Extensions to the Pier Hotel, Cliff Street.
• 1895:
  • Refurbishment of a private residence into the Esplanade Hotel, Marine Terrace. (Interior only; the exterior was redesigned by J. Herbert Eales in 1903 to the form still extant in 2016.)
  • The McDonald Smith Building.
  • The Union Stores Building, corner of High and Henry Streets. Built for Bateman Hardware. The verandahs of this building were removed, and restored in 1986.
• 1896: The Lilly Building, 34-36 Cliff Street (next door to the above).
• c. 1900: The Tolley & Co Warehouse, 1 Pakenham Street. The building still bears the sign for the Tolley Co. even though that company only occupied their purpose-built facility for eleven years.

• ^
• "NEW BUILDINGS AT FREMANTLE.". The West Australian. 11, (2,887). Western Australia. 20 May 1895. p. 5. Retrieved 20 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia. 
• "COMMERCIAL BUILDING, 1 PAKENHAM STREET". Retrieved 20 March 2016. 

Davis was born on 20 December 1867 in Syndey, New South Wales, into a Jewish family. His father Eleazor (or Eleazer) M. Davis was a businessman, importing and selling toys from their shop 'The Civet Cat' in King Street in central Sydney. His mother Frances (Fanny) 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.

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.