Saturday, August 6, 2022

Roslyndale – 38 Roslyndale Avenue – Woollahra – NSW

Victorian Rustic Gothic sandstone villa · Architect F. Clarke · Built c.1865 for William James Lennon (Council) · Standing — private residence

Sandstone at the cul-de-sac end of its own avenue — Roslyndale is the surviving Woollahra house that shares a “Roslyn-” name with a demolished Potts Point giant. Council’s local-history card puts Victorian Rustic Gothic walls up for broker William James Lennon around 1865, to architect F. Clarke. Estate agents selling the trophy in the 2020s preferred a romantic “Dutch Colonial c.1854” line. Both traditions name Clarke; the date and style labels disagree.

At a glance

Address: 38 Roslyndale Avenue, Woollahra NSW 2025 (live misspells Woolahra)
Architect: Frederick / F. Clarke (Council + agent agreement on surname)
Style / date (Council primary): Victorian Rustic Gothic, built by broker William James Lennon around 1865
Soft alternate (agent copy): “Dutch Colonial” sandstone manor, built c.1854
Scale (agent): c.968–1000 m² allotment; harbour glimpses; wrap verandah; Welsh slate re-tile 2000 claimed in listings
Heritage: Woollahra local-history documented
Famous later household: Frank McAlary (WWII V-J Day “Dancing Man” photograph tradition) and Patricia McAlary; long private tenure from 1978 purchase; sold 2024 (agent press: above $15m guide, undisclosed)
Fate: Standing — private residence
Disambiguation: ≠ Roslyn Hall, Potts Point / Darlinghurst (Hallen, demolished 1937)

Site & setting

Roslyndale Avenue, Woollahra — leafy cul-de-sac east of Edgecliff / Queen Street village, historically Cooper-estate leasehold country. Aboriginal Country: Gadigal / eastern harbour peoples. The house sits behind a substantial sandstone street wall in manicured gardens; agent photography shows harbour glimpses from verandahs. Nearby Hawthornden (6 Roslyndale Avenue) was also started by Lennon in 1858 (Council fast facts) — same broker’s Woollahra footprint, different house.

Timeline

c.1858 – Lennon begins neighbouring Hawthornden (Council) — contextual.
c.1865 (Council) / c.1854 (agent soft) – Roslyndale built; architect F. Clarke; builder/owner tradition William James Lennon.
20th c. – Private occupancy chain not fully traced.
1978 – Purchased by Frank & Patricia McAlary for $425,000 (agent press).
McAlary chapter – Long family home of the late Frank McAlary, widely identified with Sydney’s WWII “Dancing Man” celebration image (press/agent framing).
2021+ – Patricia McAlary dies; property prepared for sale after 40+ years.
2024 – Sold before auction (Bradfield BadgerFox / press); private treaty also recorded Oct 2024 in some listings — treat as recent private turnover, not a museum opening.
Live blog 2022-08 – Four exterior/garden photographs; almost no narrative text.

Architecture & interiors

Council: Victorian Rustic Gothic sandstone. Agent photography and copy: freestanding sandstone, wrap verandah, high ceilings (claimed 3.3 m), chandeliers, fireplaces, French doors, cellar, multi-bedroom plan. Prefer Council style label over “Dutch Colonial” marketing. No measured interior schedule from heritage inventory consulted this wave — caption live images from what they show, not from invented plaster lists. DA-approved Hancock Architects rejuvenation plans were marketed with the 2020s sale — flag as proposal, not as executed history, unless later evidence confirms works.

People & anecdotes

William James Lennon — broker; Council credits him as builder of Roslyndale and starter of Hawthornden.

F. Clarke — architect named by Council and by modern agents.

Frank McAlary — barrister; late-life Woollahra householder; press identification with the famous Sydney “Dancing Man” V-J Day photograph. Treat the photograph identification as the popular press tradition attached to the house sale, not as a separate archival proof chain unless you add one.

Patricia McAlary — widow; death prompted the 2020s sale.

What stands today

Roslyndale stands as a private residence at 38 Roslyndale Avenue. No public house-museum access. Respect privacy of current owners after the 2024 sale.

Sources & further reading

Woollahra Municipal Council — Local history fast facts R: Roslyndale entry: https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-history/Local-history-fast-facts/R
Woollahra Council — Hawthornden (6 Roslyndale Ave) contextual: Local history fast facts H
Agent / press (McAlary sale chapter; soft on build date/style): Bradfield BadgerFox listing; The Real Estate Conversation sale reports 2024–25

Related on this blog

Roslyn Hall – Potts Point — different house (demolished)
Other Woollahra / Cooper-estate villas — search labels
Merioola and eastern-suburbs society houses — search labels

Gallery

Friday, June 3, 2022

“Ermington” - Crowley & Lancaster Avenue - Melrose Park - New South Wales

“Ermington” was located between Crowley and Lancaster Avenue - Melrose Park and was Built in 1828 by Edmund and Sarah Lockyer. It was part of a 184 Acre estate. Other owners included Janet and Sophia Heydon and John And Agnes Linsley.

The house had six bedrooms, drawing room, billiard and dining rooms, library, play room, nursery maids room, Main and back halls as well as servants quarters.
A covered Roadway led from the house to the ballroom where parties and balls were held. Visitors entered via Wharf Road and drove through an Avenue of Pine trees to the house where the Camelias Grew

“Lunnhilda” “Dudhope” “Putney Park House - New South Wales

“Lunnhilda”. “Dudhope”. “Putney Park House” - New South Wales

This Property was built in the 1880’s by Francis Augustus and Emma Wright. Originally called “Lunnhilda”. It was located on the western side of Pellisier Road close to where it meets McGowan Street. It had a tiled hall, sitting room, library, dining and drawing Rooms, breakfast room, Six bedrooms, two servants rooms, small room in the tower, bathroom, kitchen, storeroom, pantry, storeroom servants hall, two cellars, laundry, small wooden boot room, conservatory on the verandah, cowshed, brick stables, boat and bathing house.

“Glendower” - Cnr Constitution & Belmore Street - Meadowbank - NSW

“Glendower” - Corner of Constitution Road And Belmore Street - Meadowbank - New South Wales

“Glendower” located at the Corner Of Constitution Road And Belmore Street, was built by Benjamin Charles Martin c1890. However it’s long term owners from 1907, were members of the Lackersteen Family, of jam and condiment fame.
It was on a large block of land which was resumed in 1947 and 1959 for the building of the Meadowbank Public School. By the late 1950’s the house was occupied by two unmarried Lackersteen children: Cecil Octavious and Mabel. They died within 7 months of each other in 1962.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

“Guntawang” - Mudgee Region - New South Wales

“Guntawang”

One of Australia’s most iconic and historic rural properties dating back to the first land grant in 1821.
The grand Homestead is unique with this impressive curved bow front, floor-to-ceiling sash windows, Italian eight characteristics and wide verandas with cast-iron pillars.
Based on the Georgian Italian and Renaissance from the early 1800s it is long held a reputation for wearing elite thoroughbreds and find life stock
Approximately 451 ha – 1116 acres – of pure soils prime pastures with an abundance of river and ball water for irrigation and life stop.

The master family room is very reminiscent of Vaucluse house in the same style as the original Wentworth design.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Biltmore – 14 Lang Road – Centennial Park – NSW

Federation Arts and Crafts sandstone · c.1910 · Standing — private · Sydney LEP I107 · Lang Road HCA

Park-edge sandstone Federation on the 1905 Centennial Park residential subdivision — Biltmore to the Sydney LEP, a Roselli/Kidd-refreshed entertainer’s house to recent agents. Welcome to Biltmore — not Walsholme at No. 12; not Lactura at No. 24.

At a glance

Name: Biltmore (Sydney LEP Schedule 5 title)
Address / site: 14 Lang Road, Centennial Park NSW 2021; Lot 20, Section 5, DP 4599; parkside Lang Road frontage (~961 m² in recent marketing)
Traditional Custodians: Gadigal of the Eora Nation (Centennial Parklands / City of Sydney framing)
Subdivision context: Centennial Park western perimeter lots sold from 1904/05 under brick-or-stone / slate-or-tile covenants (Lang Road HCA / Wikipedia Centennial Park)
Built: c.1910 — two-storey Federation Arts and Crafts sandstone house; hipped slate roof; sandstone front fence; two-storey front verandah (first floor historically enclosed with glazing — South Sydney / Federation Details inventory)
Architect / original owner: not identified in LEP schedule, HCA sheet or City Archives BA label consulted — leave blank rather than guess
Heritage: Sydney LEP 2012 Schedule 5 Local I107 — House “Biltmore” including interior, front fence and gates; within Lang Road Heritage Conservation Area (Sydney LEP C7 / Heritage NSW ID 2421486)
Recent works: architect redesign Luigi Roselli; interiors Alexandra Kidd (agency listings mirrored in live post — contemporary program, not Federation room schedule)
Fate: Standing — private residence (not a museum)

Site & setting

Lang Road is the dress-circle western edge of Centennial Park — wide street, large setbacks, rear access via Centennial Lane, a run of individually listed Federation and Free Classical houses. Biltmore sits between Walshome / Walsholme (12 Lang, LEP I106) and 18 Lang in the statutory list, with Lactura (24 Lang, LEP I111) further north. The 1905 covenant regime explains the stone-and-slate quality without needing a celebrity first owner on file.

Timeline

1888 – Centennial Park opens; residential fringe funding long discussed.
1904–05 – Western park-edge land subdivided (Martin, Robertson, Lang, Cook Roads); covenants enforce high-cost single dwellings.
c.1910 – Biltmore built (South Sydney heritage inventory / Federation Details dating).
1921 – City of Sydney BA plans: “Lang Rd Centennial Park (14) (Biltmore). Additions” (City Archives A-00561724) — name already in municipal use.
Late 20th / early 21st c. – Federation fabric retained under local listing; upper verandah glazing noted in inventory.
2010s–2020s – Roselli redesign and Kidd interiors; prestige sale marketing (source of the live paste).
Today – Standing private house on the Lang Road HCA streetscape.

Architecture & interiors

Prefer inventory wording over agent poetry. Federation Details / South Sydney inventory essentials: sandstone Arts and Crafts; hipped slate roof; two-storey front verandah; sandstone fence and gates (LEP scope includes interior). First-floor verandah historically enclosed with glazing. Recent agency copy emphasises grand foyer, formal/casual living spilling to pool and outdoor kitchen, five-bedroom layout with self-contained guest retreat above triple garage, home office with garden entry — modern program, not a 1910 room schedule.

People & anecdotes

No securely documented original owner or Federation architect in the sources consulted. The 1921 BA already labels the property Biltmore, locking the house name in City records. Luigi Roselli and Alexandra Kidd are the named contemporary design authors in sale materials. Pair narratively with neighbouring Lang Road listed houses (Walsholme I106, Lactura I111, Wallaroy I109, Devoncliffe I112, Waitui / Byera Hadley at 106).

What stands today

Biltmore stands, privately owned, individually listed I107 inside the Lang Road HCA. Not open as a house museum. Check City of Sydney heritage controls before any alteration claims in captions.

Map pin: 14 Lang Road, Centennial Park.
Statutory frame: Sydney LEP I107 + Lang Road HCA C7.
Do not merge with Walsholme (12) or Lactura/Lectura (24).

Sources & further reading

Sydney LEP 2012 Schedule 5 — House “Biltmore”, 14 Lang Road, Local I107 (Lot 20, Section 5, DP 4599): https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/epi-2012-0628
Heritage NSW — Lang Road Heritage Conservation Area (ID 2421486): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2421486
Federation Details / Federation Home — Centennial Park Lang Road inventory (Biltmore, c.1910 Arts & Crafts sandstone)
City of Sydney Archives — BA plan “Biltmore” additions 1921 (A-00561724): https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1447152
Agency listings (Roselli / Kidd — secondary fabric/program only)

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Images retained from the live Blogger post:

“Raeburn” - 157 Old South Head Road - Breadalbane - NSW

Raeburn, one of Australia’s great colonial Homestead, has been meticulously restored and modernised to create graceful country living on 154 ha of prime grazing land.
Ideally situated on the edge of the southern highlands, Raeburn is a two hour drive from Sydney and 45 minutes from Canberra.
Ideally situated on the edge of the southern highlands, Raeburn is a two hour drive from Sydney and 45 minutes from Canberra.
The heritage listed a wonder speaks to its Chisholm family past, with 13 foot decorative ceilings, Stunning see the mill work, marble fireplaces, stone cellar, stables and coachhouse.
stunning Cedar Mill work, marble fireplaces, stone cellar, stables in coachhouse.
Without losing any of its 1850s heritage, ripens modern comforts include a champion size tennis court, I thought water swimming pool and the finest European wallpapers and light fittings.
The vast Peter fudge designed garden has stunning northerly views with trivia, croquet lawn and stone walled orchard

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Burradoo - “Clubbe Cottage” - Riversdale Avenue - NSW

“Clubbe Cottage” - Buradoo- New South Wales

This is one of the original 1890s Apollo club cottages. It’s an extraordinarily beautiful home designed by John Horbury Barry Hunt,

The house remains in its original charm, from the shingle clad exterior & open fireplaces, to the 14 Ft ceilings, stain glass feature windows, detailed timber work, & geometric verandas.

Currently, one wing of club cottage is utilised as a bed and breakfast but the layer is perfect as a five bedroom, three bathroom

GatedAnd superbly private, cinnamon magnificently manicure the grounds, this outstanding estate, designed by John Solomon, is one of Bahrat dos largest land holdings and is less than 90 minutes from Sydney.
And superbly private, settlement magnificently manicured grounds, with outstanding estate, designed by John Solomon, is one of the para dos largest land holdings and is less than 90 minutes from Sydney.

Impeccably appointed and showcasing exceptional elegant and refined grand you are, the home is Boyd by sophisticated beauty and functionality, uniting original character features and contemporary seems to present anaesthetic that luxury buyers at this level would appreciate.
Impeccably appointed and showcasing exceptional elegant and refined grand you are, the home is Boyd by sophisticated beauty and functionality, uniting original character features and contemporary seems to present anaesthetic that luxury buyers at this level would appreciate.

-Ground you are and elegant, set for your grounds
-Grandeur and elegant, set for your grounds
-entrance foyer with original circa 1880s chandelier
-formal living and dining rooms spacious family zones
-superbly appointed kitchen with Butlers pantry and island
-Six well scales bedrooms, inclusive of two guest suite
-Six will scale bedrooms, inclusive of two guest suite
– ducted air conditioning, hydronic heating and to guest suite
– ducted Aircon hydronic heating and fireplaces throughoutlarge bespoke mud room/laundry, second laundry and wet conditions
–-Attached for car garage and workshop with Last storage
-Attached for car garage and workshop with Last storage
I-moments to Bowral cosmopolitan and thriving town.

Thursday, November 25, 2021

“Sienna” - 61 new south head Road-Vaucluse – New South Wales

61 new south head Road-Vaucluse – New South Wales

Made for entertaining luxurious Lee renovated harbourside family entertain offers I Dilick level Gardens and expensive harbour views

Magnificently positioned offering all day sunlight, this charming character field Tuscan inspired home occupies an impressive 822 m² parcel of land, overlooking the magnificent iconic Sydney harbour views of Mossman, Manly, Watsons Bay, McQuarrie Lighthouse, the heads and beyond the Tasman Sea,

Sienna is tightly held and has only ever had three owners. Providing an impeccable family sanctuary ghosting apprised northerly aspect and a cleverly designed floor plan spread over three expensive levels.

Sienna is tightly held and has only ever had three owners. Providing an impeccable family sanctuary posting a prized northerly aspect and a cleverly designed floor plan spread over three expensive levels.

Beautifully renovated, no expense has been spared to create the ultimate in luxurious family entertaining with all the entertaining areas flowing seamlessly the sun soaked level gardens and wraparound alfresco spaces.

Complete with jewel level street access liar Captain Pipers Road assuring privacy, security and easy level access, this outstanding home is ultimately convenient, only a short level stroll to Vaucluse Village shops eateries and purchase price

97 Flinders Street – Darlinghurst – Surry Hills

Melrose – 97 Flinders Street-Darlinghurst-Surry Hills demolished 1902

5 to 7 Attunga Street, Woollahra – New South Wales

Architectural masterpiece with Park like Gardens on the border of Woollahra Village.

Situated on over 1100 m² of blue ribbon land, the 1868 home Attunga Lodge has been completely re-imagined, to showcase and exquisite family estate of magnificent proportions and masterful architectural design.

The versatility of the layout provides endless appeal for families of all stages. Interiors flow to entertainers Terrace, pool and exquisitely landscaped gardens. With a double garage +3 car spaces to select address circle position is hidden away with access to Queen Street in Woollahra Village

629 new south head Road – Rosebay – New South Wales

629 new south head Road – Rosebay-New South Wales

A rare surviving example of Rosebay is historic past, this exquisite circa 1880 residents is set on 895 m² approximately of perfect north facing level land, is it magnificent home of Graham proportions with modern additions and intimate harbour views.

Graced with soaring pressed metal ceilings and beautiful original fixtures, it reveals a faster rate of formal and informal living/dining area is extending to a sequence of travertine entertainers terraces and Sun based outdoor areas.

Graced with soaring pressed metal ceilings and beautiful original fixtures, it reveals a faster rate of formal and informal living/dining areas extending to a sequence of travertine entertainers terraces and sun based outdoor areas.

Featuring a gourmet island kitchen with superior life gas appliances, five generous bedrooms plus study as well as a separate self-contained residence.

Close to Rosebay promenade, waterfront eateries, Village shops, cafes, transport, parks, beaches and elite schools.

Monday, November 15, 2021

Fenton – 8 Albert Street – Edgecliff – NSW

Built 1918–1919 · Architect Robin S. (Robert Smith) Dods — his own house · Standing (SHR #00249)

Down a long cypress-shaded brick drive off Albert Street, Edgecliff — once part of the Orielton Estate — architect Robin Dods built Fenton as his own last house: white-rendered Interwar Georgian Revival walls, green shutters, terracotta shingles, and maple interiors admired by Hardy Wilson and Leslie Wilkinson. Still standing as a private residence on the NSW State Heritage Register. Welcome to Fenton — not Orielton itself; not a Victorian Edgecliff villa.

At a glance

Address / site: 8 Albert Street, Edgecliff NSW 2027; Lot A DP 964839; ~1,408–1,410 m² north-facing grounds (Heritage NSW / Wikipedia); ~−33.8806, 151.2387
Built: 1918–1919 (Heritage NSW construction years); completed as Dods’s own residence shortly before his death (1920)
Architect / designer: Robert Smith (Robin S.) Dods (1868–1920)
Style: Interwar Georgian Revival / colonial revival — white rendered walls, sandstone plinth and dressings, deep green shutters, steep flat terracotta-shingle roof; harbour-side lower loggia behind arcading; Arts and Crafts / Mediterranean / colonial fusion noted in Register of the National Estate / Heritage NSW
Original owner: Robin Dods; later his son, paediatrician Sir Lorimer Fenton Dods (ADB)
Heritage status: NSW State Heritage Register #00249 (gazetted 2 Apr 1999; former Permanent Conservation Order 18 Feb 1983); Register of the National Estate (1981); Woollahra LEP listing
Fate: standing as a private residence

Site & setting

Albert Street Edgecliff sits on subdivided Orielton Estate ground (1860s mansion estate cut up 1918). Dods took the largest of four allotments. From the street only the gate posts and long drive read; the house opens into a walled garden around a carriage loop and mature fig. Neighbours include church and tennis-court fabric noted in the Heritage NSW site description — keep Orielton’s earlier mansion story off this post except as estate parentage.

Timeline

1860s – Orielton Estate established at Edgecliff (site parentage).
1918 – Subdivision into four lots; Dods purchases the largest.
1918–1919 – Fenton built as Dods’s own house; he weakens during construction and ceases practice around completion (Riddel / Wikipedia tradition via Heritage NSW).
1 Feb 1920 – The Home publishes “Fenton – The Residence of Mr. R.S. Dods.”
1920 – Robin Dods dies; house passes in the Dods family line including Sir Lorimer Fenton Dods.
25 Aug 1981 – Register of the National Estate listing (Place ID 2597 tradition).
18 Feb 1983 – Permanent Conservation Order #00249.
2 Apr 1999 – Transferred to NSW SHR #00249.
2010s–2020s – Periodic market appearances; still private.

Architecture & interiors

Prefer the statutory description. Heritage NSW / AHC: symmetrical white-rendered elevations on a sandstone plinth; green shutters; terracotta shingle roof; shallow columned porch with leaded fanlight and sidelights; vaulted white plaster hall; drawing room with natural maple panelling and plaster initials ‘R’ and ‘M’; harbour-side lower floor with arcaded loggia (later separate flat). Joinery largely intact with sympathetic additions. Influences cited: William Hardy Wilson colonial revival; admiration from Wilkinson, B. J. Waterhouse and Sir Robert Lorimer (Heritage NSW significance notes).

People & anecdotes

Robin Dods — Brisbane-formed, London-trained (Aston Webb; Lorimer circle) — made Fenton his personal last statement in Sydney. Building while failing in health gives the house its elegiac reputation in Riddel’s monograph. Son Sir Lorimer Fenton Dods carries the surname into Australian paediatrics (ADB) and explains the house-name Fenton in family memory.

What stands today

Fenton stands as a private residence. The Albert Street gates and cypress drive are the public tell; the house itself sits back in the walled garden. No museum hours.

Map pin: 8 Albert Street, Edgecliff.
Statutory name: Fenton and surrounds (SHR #00249).
Do not merge with Orielton’s demolished / earlier estate narrative beyond subdivision parentage.

Sources & further reading

Heritage NSW — Fenton and surrounds (SHR #00249 / database 5045685): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045685
Wikipedia (SHR-derived) — Fenton and surrounds
Register of the National Estate — Fenton and Garden (Place ID 2597 tradition)
The Home: An Australian Quarterly, 1 Feb 1920 — “Fenton – The Residence of Mr. R.S. Dods”
Robert Riddel, Robin Dods: Selected Works (Uro Media, 2012)
ADB — Dods, Sir Lorimer Fenton (1900–1981)
Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/11/fenton-8-albert-st-edgecliff-nsw.html

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Sunday, October 3, 2021

18 Martin Road - centennial Park - New South Wales

18 Martin Road - Centennial Park

Extra ordinary expression of traditional design and classic elegance in the beautiful home that was built in the grand Victorian style.
The home resides on the highside over Special jewel Street access block, enjoying a privilege position adjacent to Centennial Park.

The home has been created with the sandstone look and a full brick and suspended concrete build to create durability and solidarity
Every piece of cabinetry including the built in robes were commissioned as a one of a kind and custom built by a master craftsman.
A more unique feature is it’s fast 14 car showroom style lock-up garage. Stroll to the entertainment Quarter water and SCG and be moments to Bondi junction in the CBD 14 million

Saturday, October 2, 2021

“Jenner House” - 2 Macleay Street - Potts Point

Jenner House – 2 Macleay Street – Potts Point – NSW

Built 1868–1871 (third storey 1876/77) · Architects Edmund Blacket; Thomas Rowe (upper floor) · Standing — private residence (SHR)

On the Elizabeth Bay side of Macleay Street — where Alexander Macleay’s great estate was carved into villa lots — stands one of Potts Point’s rare surviving marine villas. Jenner began life as Lebbeus Hordern’s Stramshall, a Blacket house with Horbury Hunt in the detailing; grew a third storey under Thomas Rowe; served forty years as a private hospital; lost its foreshore garden to the Captain Cook Graving Dock; worked for the Navy as Fleet Club and canteen; and has come home again as a restored private mansion with one of the last remnant villa gardens on the Point.

At a glance

Address: 2 Macleay Street, Potts Point
Other names: Stramshall; Kurragheen / Kurrahjeen; Lugano; Jenner Private Hospital; Fleet Club
Built: 1868–1871 (Blacket two-storey villa + service wing); third storey added 1876/77 (Thomas Rowe)
Architects: Edmund Blacket; internal detailing attributed to John Horbury Hunt (then in Blacket’s office); Thomas Rowe (second/third floor)
Style: Regency Revival lower floors transitioning to Italianate villa (SHR)
Original lessee / client: Lebbeus Hordern (retailer), 99-year lease on Macleay subdivision of Elizabeth Bay estate
Heritage: NSW State Heritage Register #00776 (2 April 1999); Permanent Conservation Order 10 July 1998
Fate / current use: Standing — private residence after Defence disposal (1998) and early-21st-century restorations

Site & setting

Derrawunn is the Aboriginal name recorded for Potts Point. This lot was not one of Darling’s 1828 villa grants; it was cut from Alexander Macleay’s ~54–55 acre Elizabeth Bay estate in the 1865/66 subdivision (Casey & Lowe / SHR). Harbour frontage once ran down to Elizabeth Bay with bathing pool and bathing house; that foreshore was resumed in 1940 for Garden Island / Captain Cook Graving Dock works, leaving the house perched above a sandstone ledge and semi-circular retaining wall.

The west forecourt to Macleay Street still reads as a villa approach — set-back house, carriage-loop memory, mature Magnolia grandiflora, remnant perimeter wall. The east garden, though truncated, is called out by the National Trust (1981) and SHR as among the only remaining gardens of the once-numerous fashionable Potts Point villas. Neighbours in spirit: Bomera & Tarana to the north-west, Elizabeth Bay House to the south-east.

Timeline

1828 – Alexander Macleay granted Elizabeth Bay estate (context).
1865/66 – Subdivision creates the Macleay Street marine-villa lots (Casey & Lowe).
1868–1871 – Lebbeus Hordern’s 99-year lease; Edmund Blacket designs and builds two-storey Stramshall (Regency Revival) with service wing; Hunt attributed for stair/external influence (SHR / Cox et al.).
1875 – Lease transferred to John Thomas Neale (produce merchant / Colonial Architect’s Office accountant; Newtown alderman).
1876/77 – Thomas Rowe adds third storey, reusing original materials (SHR; sources differ on 1876 vs Feb 1877). Eastern retaining wall, bathing pool and bathing house built by 1877 (probably Rowe).
1879 – Renamed Kurragheen (also spelled Kurrahjeen).
1884 – Outbuildings along northern Macleay boundary; renamed Lugano.
1897 – Neale dies; widow Hannah Maria Neale inherits (Cox et al.).
1915 – Adapted as private hospital Jenner; minor works for hospital use.
1920s – Garage at south-west corner; further hospital alterations (1929 north outbuilding raised, etc.).
1940 – Commonwealth acquires site for dockyard expansion; foreshore garden largely destroyed.
1943 – Air-raid shelter on eastern circular lawn (later demolished).
1952 – Hospital lease ends; RAN adapts building as Fleet Canteen (bar use; ground-floor walls opened).
1960s–1990s – Naval Photographic Unit, offices, Navy News; Mid-1990s Navy Commercial Support Group; prepared for disposal 1997–98.
1998 – Sold to Anthony (Tony) Peterson; Peter Freeman CMP 2000/01; SHR listing pathway.
2009 onward – Terry & Wendy Mullens purchase; major restoration (Domain / SHR notes 2018–21 “painstaking” works).
Today – Private residence on SHR.

Architecture & interiors

Jenner is a grand three-storey marine villa. The lower two floors on the western façade still read Regency; elsewhere the house shows the more flamboyant asymmetrical Italianate taste of the later nineteenth century (SHR statement of significance). Blacket’s domestic hand, with Hunt’s detailing in stair and related work, makes the interiors especially valuable. Rowe’s upper floor completed the harbour-facing silhouette.

SHR and later descriptions note solid sandstone foundations, high ceilings (sales copy often says ~4 m), Australian cedar staircase and joinery, and multiple nineteenth-century chimneypieces. Modern Domain pieces reproduced on the heritage record mention white Carrara mantelpieces and imported chandeliers — treat those provenance stories as sales tradition unless a fabric survey confirms them. The north wing is significant as evidence of servants’ status and planning (SHR). Remnant outbuilding walls survive in the north-west of the site; the 1920s garage sits on the Macleay frontage.

People & anecdotes

Lebbeus Hordern of the retailing family commissioned Stramshall — a late Macleay-estate marine villa rather than an 1828 Darling grant house. Edmund Blacket, former Colonial Architect and church-builder extraordinary, here shows his domestic register; John Horbury Hunt, then in the office, leaves fingerprints scholars still argue over in the stair and elevations.

J.T. Neale and his widow carried the house through its Lugano years. From 1915 the name Jenner stuck through hospital decades — another Potts Point mansion that survived by becoming a clinic. Then the Navy: Fleet Canteen, photographers, Navy News editors upstairs — Garden Island’s civilian neighbour in uniform. The 1998 Defence sale returned the villa to private hands; the Mullens-era restoration is why the bones Blacket and Rowe left can be read again.

What stands today

Jenner House stands at 2 Macleay Street as a private SHR-listed residence. The Macleay Street forecourt and remnant east garden can be appreciated from the public footpath and (where visible) from harbour/dockyard edges — do not enter private grounds. Pair with Bomera & Tarana (1 Wylde Street) and Elizabeth Bay House (house museum). Remember the lost bathing pool and foreshore terraces under today’s dockyard edge.

Sources & further reading

NSW State Heritage Register — Jenner House (SHR 00776): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5051239
Heritage NSW HMS: https://www.hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au/App/Item/ViewItem?itemId=5051239
Peter Freeman & Associates, Jenner Precinct Conservation Management Plan, 2000/2001
Philip Cox, Richardson, Taylor & Partners, ‘Jenner’, 2 Macleay Street, Potts Point — Conservation Study, 1993
Casey & Lowe, archaeological assessments (2001, 2004) — cited on SHR
City of Sydney Archives — Jenner Precinct CMP record: https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1866414
Dictionary of Sydney — Potts Point: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/potts_point
Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/10/jenner-house-2-macleay-strret-potts.html

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Carthona – 5 Carthona Avenue – Darling Point – NSW

Built 1841 · Sir Thomas Mitchell’s Gothic harbourside mansion · Standing — private residence

This is not a Potts Point house. The scrapbook post titled “Carthona – Potts Point” carries a harbour-edge Gothic mansion photograph that matches Carthona, Darling Point — Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell’s stone house on the promontory at the end of Carthona Avenue. Potts Point has no established Carthona.

At a glance

Address: 5 Carthona Avenue, Darling Point (Woollahra LGA) — NOT Potts Point
Built: 1841 (family moves in 1845 after Mitchell’s time at neighbouring Lindesay)
Builder / designer tradition: Heritage NSW / Woollahra listing — built by Sir Thomas Mitchell; many door/window keystones believed carved by him. Secondary sources also associate architect George Allen Mansfield
Style: Mannerist Tudor Gothic / Gothic Revival sandstone mansion — gabled slate roofs, castellated parapets, tall Tudor chimneys, pointed ground-floor windows, shuttered upper windows; cellars
Original owner: Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792–1855), Surveyor-General of NSW
Heritage: Woollahra LEP (item 82 / earlier LEP 1995 listing); National Trust / Register of the National Estate traditions; SHI database ID 2711048
Fate / current use: Standing — long Bushell / Oxley family occupation from 1940; private home

Site & setting

Critical disambiguation — the Potts Point mislabel.

Darling Point (Mrs Darling’s Point in early notices) is a separate harbour promontory east of Rushcutters Bay — not the Potts Point / Woolloomooloo Hill ridge. Carthona sits at water level under the point, with Lindesay upslope in the same colonial cluster. The live post’s photograph — picket fence at the seawall, steep cleared hill behind, Gothic chimneys — is that Darling Point topography.

Disambiguation checklist

Carthona — 5 Carthona Ave, Darling Point — Mitchell, 1841 — this post
Carthona — 85 Todman Ave, Kensington — Federation house c.1910; SHR
Carthona — 76 Redmyre Rd, Strathfield — Federation Arts & Crafts c.1908
(no verified Carthona) — Potts Point — live title appears to be a mislabel

Timeline

1841 – Mitchell, back from England and knighthood, buys Lindesay (Lot 1) and additional Darling Point lots; Carthona built on lots 12–15 while the family occupies Lindesay.
1845 – Mitchells move into Carthona; Lindesay sold to Sir Charles Nicholson.
1845–46 – Fourth expedition; Aboriginal guide Yuranigh stays briefly at Carthona before leaving city life (secondary / SHR Yuranigh associations).
Feb 1847 – SMH advertisement offers Carthona for sale during Mitchell’s English sojourn — “very splendid family mansion… two acres… Mrs Darling’s Point.”
5 Oct 1855 – Mitchell dies at his Sydney home (ADB); Carthona tradition places the death in the house. Will leaves Carthona to daughter Alice.
1858–72 – Misses Cooksey conduct a ladies’ boarding school at Carthona (SMH Jan 1858 advertisement).
1875 – Alice (then Mrs Dauncey, in England) advertises detailed sale description (stone, cellars, sliding drawing/dining rooms, library, six-stall stables, spring water).
1880–85 – Arthur Mansfield Allen / Alice Greer Allen occupancy; both die 1885; house marketed 1886.
1887–99 – William Broadfoot Mitchell (Tooths; not related to Sir Thomas) after father James Sutherland Mitchell buys Carthona for him; dies 1899.
1900–02 – Holmes Samuel Chipman.
1902–04 – Harry Rickards (theatre entrepreneur) buys; then builds Canonbury nearby on Lansdowne ground (later McKell Park).
1904–11 – Marcus William Oldham.
1911–13 – Ernest Wunderlich purchase for subdivision marketing; house lot survives.
1913–39 – Arthur Edward Hughes ownership; short-term tenants include William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (former NSW Governor).
1940 onward – Philip Bushell (Bushell’s Tea) purchases; family continuity through Bushell / Oxley generations; waterfront garden additions from neighbouring Edgewater mid-1950s.
Today – Still a private Gothic harbourside mansion.

Architecture

Heritage NSW describes an impressive two-storey sandstone mansion with cellars in mannerist Tudor Gothic style: profusion of gabled slate roofs, castellated parapets and balconies, tall Tudor chimneys; pointed Gothic ground-floor windows with fretwork; flat-arched shuttered first-floor windows; later sympathetic additions. The carving tradition — Mitchell’s own hand on keystones — is part of the house’s folklore and listing text.

1875 sale copy adds lived detail: large hall and stair, drawing and dining rooms linked by sliding doors with bay to Double Bay, library, basement cellars “well drained,” Russell cooking stove, coachhouse and stabling for six.

People

Sir Thomas Mitchell — Peninsular War draftsman, Surveyor-General, explorer of Australia Felix, duel with Donaldson, boomerang propeller, Camoens translator — lived the last decade of a combative public life between this Gothic stage and the bush. Blanche Mitchell’s diary grief for “cool Carthona air” after the family’s debt-driven move to Craigend Terrace is the emotional caption.

Cooksey school — English sisters turning a surveyor-general’s mansion into a finishing school: a very Sydney sequel.

Harry Rickards — Tivoli king who paused here before Canonbury.

Bushell / Oxley — tea fortune and, later, contemporary art (Roslyn Oxley) under Gothic chimneys: the long private stewardship that kept Carthona standing when so many harbour Gothic piles did not.

Gallery

Carthona is a large Gothic Revival sandstone Mansion at 5 Carthona Avenue, at the eastern tip of Darling Point

It was built between 1841 - 1845 for Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Surveryor General Of New South Wales, & one of the colony's celebrated explorers.

Sir Thomas Mitchell -

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The name is said to have come from A Gaelic Phrase meaning - The Murmour of the waves, fitting its waterfront position with views across Double Bay towards Point Piper & north toward Manly.

The house has Castelled Parapets, Tall Tudor chimneys, galbled slate roof & pointed Gothic windows. Sir Thomas Mitchell chose the site partly for 2 fresh water streams that ran through the rock. The design closely followed a house on the shores of Englands Lake Windermere. The Architect is attributed to James Hume, though some sources credit George Allen Mansfield

Mitchell first lived at the neighbouring Lindesay while planning & building Carthona. The family moved in in 1845. Soon after settling in Mitchell set out on his fourth expeditoin, searching for an overland route to Port Essington in the present day Northern Territory. His Aboriginal guide Yuranigh lived briefly at Carthona before returning to work as a stockman.

and he sold Lindesay to his friend sir Charles Nickolson

After Sir Thomas Mitchells Died at the house on the 5th October 1855. He left the property to his daughter Alice.

Blanche Mitchell - Youngest Daughter of Sir Thomas Mitchell

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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1870's it was leased to Mrs Cooksey as a Girls School.

From the 1860's onwards the propoerty passed through several notable owners, including the Colonial Lawyer Arthur Allens's family, the unrelated Busisnessman James Sutherland Mitchell, & Theatre Entepreneur Harry Rickards.

in 1940 Bushell's Tea bought the property for the tea & coffee merchant Phillip Bushell. The family has held it ever since

The grounds were later subdivided, but the mansion remains one of Darling Points most significant hertiage listed residences.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Transcription (Auction catalogue cover, James R. Lawson, 1902)

CARTHONA
DARLING POINT

[Photograph] The Residence of H. S. CHIPMAN, Esq.

Important Auction Sale
Wednesday, 12th November, 1902.
James R. Lawson. LAWSON, CARD & CO. LTD. FINE ART & GENERAL AUCTIONEERS, 128 & 130 PITT STREET.

[illegible printer's line]

What stands today

Carthona stands at 5 Carthona Avenue, Darling Point, as a private residence. It is not open as a museum. View respectfully from the harbour or public foreshores; do not disturb occupants. Pair with Lindesay (National Trust) on the same point.

Sources & further reading

Heritage NSW / Woollahra LEP — Carthona (SHI 2711048): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2711048
ADB — Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mitchell-sir-thomas-livingstone-2463
ADB — Harry Rickards: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rickards-harry-8206
W.C. Foster, Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell and His World 1792–1855 (Institution of Surveyors NSW, 1985)
Sydney Morning Herald sale/lettings notices 1847, 1858, 1875 (Trove)
Earlier scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/08/carthona-potts-point.html

Lindesay – Darling Point
Greenoaks / Bishopscourt – Darling Point (see blog label search)
Swifts – Darling Point
Hereford House – Glebe (adjacent live-post chronology only)

Monday, August 2, 2021

Hereford House – 53 Hereford Street – Glebe – NSW

Victorian Filigree villa · Built 1874 for William Bull · Standing — private; SHR #00460

On Hereford Street’s Victorian streetscape, wheelwright William Bull raised a two-storey stucco Filigree villa that still holds its slate hip, cast-iron verandahs, and Venetian ground-floor windows. It is the second Glebe house to carry the Hereford name — the 1829 original, demolished in the 1930s, stood where Foley Park is now. Mayor Stephen McCormack later kept house here; Lew Hoad is said to have learned tennis on the rear courts. State heritage listing (SHR #00460) protects the house, and the live stub can finally carry a sourced body.

At a glance

Address: 53 Hereford Street, Glebe NSW 2037
Built: 1874 for William Bull (wheelwright; Glebe Rowing Club founder tradition — Glebe Society / SHR)
Style: Victorian Filigree — symmetrical stucco, slate hipped roof, cast-iron columns and valances over both levels, French doors to upper verandah (Glebe Society)
Heritage: NSW SHR #00460 (listed 2 Apr 1999; DB 5045299); Sydney LEP (incl. interior, front fence, front garden); National Trust classified
Later owners (Glebe Society chain): Alice & William Goldsmith (1909); Alexander Levi (1924); Louise & Phillip Leonard (1928); Stephen McCormack, Mayor of Glebe (1951); NSW College of Nursing; private from early 2000s tradition
Fate: Standing — private residence; rear medium-density where draught-horse stables once stood
Disambiguation: ≠ first Hereford House (1829–1930s), Foley Park site

Hereford House - Glebe

Site & setting

Hereford Street, Glebe — mid-Victorian residential street on the old Church glebe subdivisions (Parish of Petersham). Aboriginal Country: Gadigal of the Eora Nation. Front garden and fence are part of the LEP listing; rear yard now carries late-20th-century housing on the former stables footprint. Tennis courts once behind the house are gone with that redevelopment (Glebe Society).

Timeline

1829 / 1930s – First Hereford House built / demolished — Foley Park site (Glebe Society) — different building.
1874 – Present Hereford House built for William Bull.
1900–1901 – William dies; widow Catherine dies the following year.
1909 – Sold to Alice Goldsmith and butcher husband William.
1924 / 1928 – Alexander Levi; then Louise & Phillip Leonard.
1951 – Stephen McCormack (Mayor of Glebe; master carrier) purchases; family to 1981 era.
College of Nursing chapter – Institutional ownership; 1981 Bull-family archives gifted to Glebe Society.
2 Apr 1999 – SHR listing #00460.
Today – Private residence.

Architecture & interiors

Two-storey symmetrical Filigree villa: stucco walls, slate hip, Venetian windows at ground floor, cast-iron verandah and French doors above, iron columns and valances reading through both levels (Glebe Society description aligning with SHR aesthetic criteria). LEP protection of interior, front fence and garden means fabric changes need heritage consent — describe publicly documented exterior character rather than inventing room schedules.

People & anecdotes

William Bull — wheelwright; local association with Glebe Rowing Club; family note (Glebe Society comments) corrects an older “First Fleet marine” father claim toward NSW Corps / Minerva 1800 arrival. Stephen McCormack — Mayor of Glebe; family memories of stables yard and tennis courts. Lew Hoad — popular claim he learned tennis on the rear courts (Glebe Society).

What stands today

Hereford House stands as a private SHR-listed house at 53 Hereford Street. No public museum access. Pair with Glebe Society’s Late Victorian streetscapes walk.

Sources & further reading

Heritage NSW — Hereford House (DB 5045299 / SHR 00460): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045299
Glebe Society — Hereford House: https://www.glebesociety.org.au/buildings/hereford-house/
Live stub: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/09/hereford-house-glebe.html
Wikipedia — Hereford House

Related on this blog

Glebe villas: Bidura; Lyndhurst; Reussdale; Bellevue Glebe Point
Other Victorian Filigree streetscape houses — search labels

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Rockwall – Rockwall Crescent – Potts Point – NSW

Built 1831–1837 · Architect John Verge · Standing — private residence (SHR #00020)

On Woolloomooloo Hill the parade of white Regency villas was meant to prove Sydney had a gentry. Most of that skyline fell to flats and hotels. Rockwall is one of the stubborn few that still stand: John Verge’s sandstone villa begun for water-engineer John Busby, finished for grazier-merchant Hamilton Collins Sempill, later a girls’ college, a nurses’ club, a hotel annexe — and, after a careful 1990s conservation, a private house again in a quiet cul-de-sac that still carries its name. Welcome to Rockwall — not Rockwell (the live URL typo); not a demolished Heights grant villa.

At a glance

Address / site: Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point NSW 2011 — NSW State Heritage Register primary address 5 Rockwall Crescent; blog and much common usage also cite 7 (keep both); ~−33.8699, 151.2246
Built: 1831–1837
Architect: John Verge (plans 1830 for Busby; altered and completed for Sempill from 1835)
Style: Colonial Regency villa — sandstone / stuccoed brick; five bays; encircling ground-floor verandah with Doric-columned porches east and west; later Italianate verandah treatments (LEP note on SHR)
Original grantee / clients: John Busby (mineral surveyor & civil engineer Busby’s Bore); completed for Hamilton Collins Sempill
Heritage: NSW SHR #00020 (gazetted 2 Apr 1999); Permanent Conservation Order 14 Dec 1979; Register of the National Estate; National Trust
Fate: standing — restored mid-1990s with Mirvac Landmark development; privately owned house

Site & setting

The Aboriginal name recorded for Potts Point is Derrawunn. In the late 1820s the rocky ridge inland from the point was still Eastern / Woolloomooloo Hill. Governor Ralph Darling’s villa grants (from 1828) required one approved house per allotment, set in gardens, generally facing the town.

Busby received a grant of more than eight acres in 1828. The gardens once ran toward Macleay Street. A c.1840 painting of “Sempill House” (SLNSW) shows a carriage loop, shrubberies and Norfolk Island pines. Subdivision from the late 1830s onward ate those acres; Rockwall Crescent and neighbouring streets tell the story in their names. Today the house sits on about 1,349 m² of level land (SMH Domain report cited on SHR), hemmed by apartment towers to the east and south-east. The spacious setting is gone; the Verge villa is not.

Timeline

1828 – Busby granted 8+ acres on Woolloomooloo Hill.
1830 – Verge plans house and cottage; Governor approves house plans (SHR / Villas of Darlinghurst).
1831–c.1835 – Work begins (Verge ledger; SHR).
Early 1830s Busby in financial difficulty; forced to sell (SHR).
Jan 1835 – Sempill purchases; Verge alters plans and superintends completion, including stabling.
1836–37 – Thomas Urmson Ryder; Verge ledger records verandahs, garden house, completion works; 14 Dec 1837 auction — Arthur Little purchases; daughter occupies until 1872.
c.1873–1884 – Belmore College (girls’ school).
1904–1913 – Ailanthus College for Girls.
c.1914 – Dr Herbert Russell Nolan purchases; elaborate Hardy Wilson / Neave & Berry proposal c.1919–20 not acted on (SHR).
1925–1957 – Nurses’ Club Ltd ownership; documented alterations 1921–36.
1957 – Rockwall Private Hotel conversion; major renovations (new foyer; windows/doors replaced; cedar joinery and fireplaces removed en masse).
1960s – Associated with Chevron / Landmark hotel complex; virtually derelict by later decades.
14 Dec 1979 – Permanent Conservation Order; National Trust classification.
1995 – Conservation restoration by Howard Tanner & Associates for Mirvac (Landmark Parkroyal / later Rockwall Apartments).
2 Apr 1999 – Entered NSW SHR #00020.
Today – Privately owned residence.

Architecture & interiors

Prefer the statutory description. Rockwall is a two-storey Colonial Regency villa designed to be seen in the round — four façades matter (Tanner CMP policies summarised on SHR). Construction is sandstone block / stuccoed brick of five bays, with an encircling ground-floor verandah broken by Doric-columned porches on the east and west. Cedar fittings and joinery were original throughout; much was stripped in the 1957 hotel works and later recovered or reinterpreted in the 1990s conservation.

The oval geometric hall and staircase are often compared (SHR) to Elizabeth Bay House on a smaller scale — Verge’s signature planning in little. Entertaining rooms include sitting and dining rooms with marble fireplaces (as described in later sales copy reproduced on SHR). A lower sandstone service range holds kitchen, servants’ rooms, bathroom and wine cellar. SHR physical-description talk of a “dungeon and rumoured underground passage is rumour only do not treat as proven fabric history.

People & anecdotes

John Busby (1765–1857) — mineral surveyor and civil engineer behind Busbys Bore, the tunnel that gave crowded Sydney a fresh supply when the Tank Stream failed (ADB). Rockwall was meant to be his town villa; money troubles forced the sale before Verge’s house was complete.

Hamilton Collins Sempill, grazier and merchant, is the man in the c.1840 “Sempill House” view. In 1839 he sold five acres of the old Busby grant to Sir Maurice O’Connell — the Tarmons chapter on this blog.

Schoolmistresses of Belmore and Ailanthus, the Nurses’ Club, and the hotel years are less glamorous and just as telling — the fate of many Potts Point villas that survived the flat boom only by changing use. The 1990s Mirvac/Tanner conservation is why you can still read Verge in the façades today.

What stands today

Rockwall stands as a private residence — not a house museum. Walk Rockwall Crescent and read the villa from the footpath: Regency massing, verandahs, reduced garden, apartment towers pressing close.

Map pin: Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point (SHR #00020 — 5 / commonly 7).
Pair with Tusculum (Verge; AIA NSW HQ) and Elizabeth Bay House (Verge for Macleay).

Sources & further reading

Heritage NSW Rockwall (SHR #00020 / database 5045248): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045248
ADB — Busby, John: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/busby-john-1859
ADB Verge, John: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/verge-john-2757
State Library of NSW, Villas of Darlinghurst exhibition catalogue, 2002 (Rockwall entry); Potts Point Preservation excerpt PDF
Howard Tanner & Associates and Paul Ashton, Rockwall House Conservation Plan, 1988 (cited extensively on SHR)

Related on this blog

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the live Blogger post:

Transcription (Subdivision sale poster, Hardie and Gorman with Richardson and Wrench, 2 October 1889, Number 1)

CHALLIS ESTATE
POTTS POINT

MACLEAY ST. • CHALLIS AVENUE • VICTORIA ST. • McDONALD ST.
45 City Residence Sites.
VENDORS THE AUSTRALIAN MUTUAL INVESTMENT & BUILDING Co. LIMITED
Auction Sale Wednesday October 2nd 1889
IN THE ROOMS 133 PITT ST.
AUCTIONEERS HARDIE AND GORMAN
in conjunction with
RICHARDSON AND WRENCH LTD.

[Plan, cut off at the edge of the image: WYLDE ST, C. J. ROBERTS C.M.G.]