Woollahra House (Cooper mansion) – Point Piper – NSW

Woollahra House (Cooper mansion) – Point Piper – NSW

Victorian stone harbour mansion · William Charles Cooper 1883 · Demolished 1929 — lodge & stables survive · ≠ Henrietta Villa

No dedicated Woollahra House post exists yet — the Henrietta Villa draft already points here. This scrapbook covers the Cooper mansions on Piper’s ground, especially the 1883 house cleared in 1929 for the Point Piper streets we know. Do not merge with Captain Piper’s Henrietta Villa (demolished 1850s).

At a glance

• Site: Point Piper harbour frontage (Longworth Avenue / Wunulla Road precinct of modern Point Piper); Woollahra LGA
• Traditional Custodians: Gadigal; area name Bungarung in DoS/Henrietta sources
• Predecessor on site: Henrietta Villa (Piper, occ. 1822; dem. 1850s) → first Woollahra House for Sir Daniel Cooper, 1856 (DoS) → demolished 1880–82 (DoS)
• Second house: foundation stone 1883 for William Charles Cooper (purchased Point Piper estate from father 1882) (DoS / SLM caption)
• Style (1929 press): early Victorian Colonial with French Renaissance touches; two-storey stone; mansard tower; adjoining two-storey ballroom; carriage drive from New South Head Road gates (SLM / Commonwealth Home)
• Later owners / tenants: Lady Martin lease 1889–c.1899; Thomas Longworth from Aug 1899 to death Mar 1927 (SLM caption)
• Fate: contents auction Nov 1927; house sold 1929 for demolition/removal within four months; residential subdivision (SLM / Wikipedia quotation)
• Survivals: Rose Bay Police Station (former gatekeeper’s lodge, 1871); Wyuna Court (former stables, Wyuna Road) (DoS / SLM)

Site & setting

The same Point Piper headland that carried Piper’s marine pavilion became the Cooper family’s show estate — name “Woollahra” travelling from mansion to municipality. Carriageway from ornate New South Head Road gates wound to the waterfront stone house; grounds shrank by successive subdivisions from near-peninsula holding to about ten hectares by 1888 (SLM caption). Modern Longworth Avenue remembers later owner Thomas Longworth.

Timeline

• 1822 / 1850s – Henrietta Villa occupied; demolished for Cooper plans (Henrietta draft / DoS).
• 1856 – First Woollahra House built for Sir Daniel Cooper (DoS).
• 1871 – Gatekeeper’s lodge built (later Rose Bay Police Station) (Wikipedia/SLM tradition).
• 1880–82 – First Woollahra House demolished (DoS).
• 1882 – William Charles Cooper purchases Point Piper estate from his father (SLM).
• 1883 – Second Woollahra House foundation / construction; Coopers temporarily at nearby Kambala (Wikipedia tradition — soft).
• c.1883–88 – Early subdivision; Coopers to England 1888; grounds ~10 ha (SLM).
• 1889–c.1899 – Leased to Isabella, Lady Martin (DoS Woollahra House II / Martin entry).
• Aug 1899 – Sold to Thomas Longworth; resides until Mar 1927 (SLM).
• Nov 1927 – Contents auctioned (SLM).
• 1929 – House sold for demolition and subdivision; cleared (DoS / SLM).
• c.1929–31 – Stables converted as Wyuna Court; J.H.L. Arnott associated (press secondary).
• Today – Subdivision streets and apartments; lodge = Rose Bay Police Station; stables = Wyuna Court.

Architecture & interiors

Commonwealth Home (Oct 1929) called it one of the largest of its type — early Victorian Colonial with French Renaissance touches; two-storey stone with mansard tower; main approach by winding carriageway; adjoining two-storey ballroom (SLM caption). Prefer Hall & Co photographs and Latta Lost Glories over inventing room counts. Lodge and stables are the tangible estate grammar left after 1929.

People & anecdotes

Sir Daniel Cooper — first Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly; first Woollahra House. William Charles Cooper — builds the 1883 replacement after buying the estate in 1882. Lady Martin — wealthy lessee between Cooper departure and Longworth purchase (DoS). Thomas Longworth — industrial entrepreneur; final private master of the big house. Piper → Cooper → subdivision remains the master narrative of Point Piper.

Image gallery guidance

1. Hall & Co exterior of second Woollahra House (SLM / Lebovic)

2. Mansard tower / ballroom wing

3. New South Head Road gates / carriage drive

4. 1929 demolition / bare site with Wyuna Court conversion

5. Rose Bay Police Station (lodge) and Wyuna Court (stables) today

6. Henrietta Villa watercolours for deep before-story (existing Henrietta post)

What stands today

Both Cooper mansions are gone. Visit the Rose Bay Police Station (lodge) and Wyuna Court (stables) as estate remnants; streets of Point Piper overlay the former grounds. Do not confuse with Henrietta Villa (Piper, 1820s) or with other “Woollahra” house names elsewhere in the municipality.

Sources & further reading

• Dictionary of Sydney — Woollahra House; Woollahra House II
• Sydney Living Museums / Josef Lebovic caption trail (Latta, Lost Glories, 1986, pp. 40–47)
• Henrietta Villa draft on this blog — Piper predecessor
• Woollahra Council — Captain John Piper plaque notes (Henrietta / Cooper sequence)
• Wikipedia — Woollahra House (verify against DoS / SLM)
• Trove — search Woollahra House Point Piper; Thomas Longworth; Commonwealth Home 1929

Related on this blog

• Henrietta Villa – Point Piper — do not merge
• Elaine – Point Piper · Fairwater – Point Piper · Tresco – Point Piper · Kilmory – Point Piper
• Point Piper series hub notes on Henrietta draft

Add historic photos with captions and credits (SLNSW / Trove / author) from Image gallery guidance.