Lady Kintore Cottages

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Lady Kintore Cottages were a charitable housing project in Adelaide, South Australia, started in the 1890s during a difficult economic period. The goal was to help needy widows and deserted women find affordable homes.

History
- In 1892, a meeting at the Adelaide Town Hall, led by F. W. Bullock, founded the idea of a Rent Aid society to provide cottages at economical rents. The aim was to buy cottages for deserv­ing women who had little other housing support.
- A fundraising target of £1000 was set, but it wasn’t reached. Instead, seven three‑room cottages in Hackney were bought. This proved unsuitable because most work opportunities for these women were in the city, making travel hard for families.
- The Hackney cottages were sold, and land at the O’Brien Street/Gilbert Street corner was bought. Three cottages were built there in 1902.

Ownership and later developments
- In 1921, by the Lady Kintore Cottages Act (1920), ownership was transferred to the Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers’ Friend Society, a larger charity.
- Under the new management, two extra cottages were built using a bequest from Mrs. Jane Marks. The project’s name, Kintore, was quietly dropped.
- A further two cottages were built using bequests from Mrs. A. M. Simpson and Violet Laura Sheridan (and her sister Alice Frances Keith Sheridan), who also funded the octagonal Sheridan kiosk at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

See also
- Somerset Homes in Walkerville, another philanthropic housing project by Charles Drew.

Overall, Lady Kintore Cottages represent an early effort to provide affordable housing for vulnerable women and how the project evolved into a larger charitable housing program.