232 Roberts Street, at the intersection of Roberts Street and 3rd Avenue, was built in 1901, making it one of the oldest houses on this section of Roberts Street.

Here is a map showing the location of 232 Roberts Street:

Here is a Google Street View image of 232 Roberts Street:

The LDHS featured 232 Roberts Street in a post on its Facebook group in August 2020.

Readers provided the following information:

Lori McCullough wrote that:

“Mrs. Jane Steele lived in the house until her death in 1966. Prior to that it was the home of her parents Mr. & Mrs George Hawarth. Mr. Hawarth was elected Alderman on the first Ladysmith’s council in 1904.”

Here is a photo of the first Ladysmith Council in 1904.

Ken Brownlow wrote:

“I owned [232 Roberts Street] from 1975 to 1978. Bought it for $26k [and] sold it for $32k.”

Rod Szasz wrote:

“Jim Steel Military Historian Author of “The Suicide Battalion” did live here…. I remember meeting and sharing a few evenings of stories about WWI he was researching here in the early 80s… the memories are hazy, but I remember he told me that the house was referred to as the old “Steele Residence” (no relation and different spelling). Reference was to an original Steele family who built and lived in the house originally. [Note: see Lori McCullough  comments above]

The main sitting room had a lot of character as I remember and Jim used to write in that room and had bookshelves there for his library… Jim most recently came out with a book on Passchendaele I believe… The Steels only lived here for a short time however and the house had a family or older person living there in the 60s and 70s whose name I forget…”

Jim Steel wrote:

“We lived there from late 1977 until 9 April 1979. Our next door neighbours (east) on Roberts St. bought the house but, sorry, I can’t remember their names.”

We will add more historical information in future.