Don Bank Museum
6 Napier Street
North Sydney
Don Bank is an early 19th century vernacular timber slab cottage – the only one of its type surviving in North Sydney.
It was originally a four-room cottage and there is evidence that suggests that the house may have existed on the site before 1854. Records confirm that, by that time, the land was occupied by a four-room dwelling with detached outbuildings. It was called St Leonards Cottage – so named because much of present-day North Sydney was then known as Saint Leonards.
The house was located on a new subdivision of the Wollstonecraft/Berry estate, a large area of land granted to Edward Wollstonecraft in the 1820s and owned by his partner Alexander Berry from the 1840s. As this area was still relatively undeveloped, the cottage on the rise had views of the harbour.
From 1854 until the early 20th century the house underwent many extensions and renovations. Some outbuildings were incorporated into the house or later removed. An iron roof was placed over the timber shingles. Rooms were added on either side of the old four room cottage. The cottage was transformed through these changes into a substantial bungalow style dwelling by the turn of the 20th century – very similar to the house that survives today.
Don Bank was owned and occupied by members of the White family for much of these later decades. For these devout Catholics – part of the Irish diaspora of the mid-19th century – the house was in an ideal location
Don Bank’s Interior
Interior decoration and building fabric also changed as the house expanded during the 19th and 20th centuries. Through its changing history the house reflected the growing prosperity in the region and its inhabitants. It was built when the lower North Shore was still something of a rural retreat from Sydney. The cottage was enlarged as North Sydney’s population grew and development within an easy walk of the water became more intense.
The name of the house also changed over time from St Leonards Cottage to Don Bank. This may have happened around 1903 when the White family bought the property. The origins of the name, however, remain a mystery.
Interestingly, there is a two-storey residence called Don Bank in Devonport, Tasmania-presumably named after Don River there. There was a Don Bank private hotel in Wellington, New Zealand in the early 1900s; a Don Bank in Sheffield, England, in the 1850s; and another in Aberdeen, Scotland around the same time. However, there are no known links between these properties, or the families who lived in them.
Very little is known about the original furnishings of the house with the change in wallcoverings depicted in the permanent display panel in the front room. In other parts of the house, particularly the two rear bedrooms and the hallway, original fabric is evidenced by the original floors, and by interior fittings such as windows and fireplaces.
The current light fittings throughout were chosen to match the rooms they illuminate. In the drawing room and dining room the lights are red because of the glass light fittings.
During the process of electrification of lighting in the early 1920s many homes economised by using the gas fittings to house new electric light. In the hallway, paint scrape evidence revealed the original colour on the walls and the colour is based on this evidence. The kitchen features traditional colours complete with a dado line and lime wash around the original fuel stove
The garden
In 1854 the cottage was described as having grounds in front of the cottage which are delightfully laid out and planted with the choicest fruits and shrubs.
At this time the garden included the grounds next door on the southern boundary and the land along Napier Street up to Berry Street. Subdivision in 1903 reduced the garden to its present size
It appears that only one of the 19th-century plantings survives today – the fine Magnolia grandiflora which dominates the garden directly in front of the house.
