Local history fast facts - A
This information has been provided by the Local History Centre and the Woollahra History and Heritage Society.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
ADELAIDE BREWERY - A brewery was established by Messrs Simms, Chapman and Gleeson in 1874 to take advantage of 'a beautiful supply of permanent fresh spring water' on the site fronting Edgecliff Road. It was originally called the Adelaide Brewery later passing into the hands of Messrs Burrowes and Gleeson both of whom lived in Waverley so it took the name 'the Waverley Brewery'. In 1897 it was purchased by Edmund Resch, a successful brewer from Wilcannia who subsequently transferred operations to Dowling Street, Waterloo around the turn of the century.
ADDISON ROAD, Woollahra - Name of Addison Road Woollahra appears on an 1880s Surveyor General's sheet for a section of Wallaroy Road which extends from Edgecliff Road, east-west, from a point opposite the Forth Street Junction. Earlier known as Denison Road, providing private access to Glen Rhoda (house) and later known as Lower Forth Street. It was absorbed by renaming into Wallaroy Road by a Council resolution of 27.05.1929 with ministerial approval granted on 19.09.1929.
ALBERT STREET, Woollahra - Named in memory of Prince Consort Albert - Woollahra Council Minutes 22.04.1862.
ALCOORINGA - see Biscaya
ALL SAINTS' CHURCH - Ocean Street, Woollahra. Large Victorian Academic Gothic sandstone parish church, chancel, apse and portion of nave built in 1876, last three bays of nave in 1883 (BLACKET), first floor of tower, north and south porches to Blacket's designs, 1926 (H.C. KENT) The major benefactor was Henry Mort.
ALL SAINTS' PARISH CENTRE - at rear of the Church in Ocean Street, Woollahra. Comprises Parish Hall and Rectory group built in 1986, (CAMPBELL & LUSCOMBE architects), gained the inaugural Horbury Hunt Award in 1991 for excellence in brickwork.
AMADOWN - 738 New South Head Road, Rose Bay: see Rose Bay Memories for a history of this site.
ANDERSON STREET, Double Bay - Named in November 1923 after Tennis champion J. O. Anderson.
ANNERY, THE - 3-5 Marathon Rd, Darling Point. The red brick house was built in 1884 for George Montague Merrivale and called after the ancestral home of the Merrivales in North Devon. A guard house was built, in the north corner of the garden alongside Marathon Rd steps which was on the line of the Maroo, the old walking track from the 'Lookout Post' to Sydney Town, to house soldiers guarding convicts working in area.
ANTIQUE SHOPS: Queen Street Woollahra developed into a noted precinct for antique dealers after Bill Bradshaw opened his shop at No 96 in 1957. This was the catalyst for the revitalisation of Queen Street, which for some decades was given over almost entirely to the Antique/Gallery business.
ARDENBRAUGHT: 23 Wentworth Street, Point Piper. Built around 1900 for Cecil B. Stephen, solicitor, of locally quarried stone, faceted by Pyrmont 'Yellowstone', later converted into apartments. Sir Ben Fuller, the celebrated theatrical entrepreneur lived there for some time.
ARMY DRILL HALL - Old South Head Road, Vaucluse, now Lighthouse Reserve. A drill hall was built in 1938 for Army Reservists and during WWII was integrated into the Signal Hill Battery. The facility became surplus to defence requirements and the building was demolished in July,1996 - the land transferred to State Government control and placed under the trusteeship of the Woollahra Council. It has been landscaped and is now part of the Lighthouse Reserve.
ASCHAM SCHOOL - Darling Point: The Ascham school property is based on a consolidation of two major nineteenth-century estates : 'Glenrock' and 'Fiona' (main house and dower house) - with peripheral property added over time. 'The Octogan', acknowledged as the oldest surviving building on Darling Point, is a notable inclusion. The school was founded by Miss Marie Wallis in 1886, beginning elsewhere on Darling Point in a terrace house in Marathon Avenue, with a class of nine girls. Wallis took the name Ascham to commemorate English classical scholar Roger Ascham (1515-68). The school moved in 1895 to 'Delamere' in Goomera Crescent, and again in 1901 to Henry Mort's 'Mount Adelaide', before finally settling in 1909 at 'Glenrock'. The school colours are navy blue, red and khaki, and the motto, 'Vi et Animo' (with Heart and Soul).
ASPINALL HOUSE: Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill, The Scots College. House in Italianate style built for Joseph Josephson, District Court Judge, in 1883, named St Killian's - transferred staircase and marble hall tiles from his demolished 'Enmore House'. Scots moved from Brighton in 1895. The house was named after the Rev. Arthur Aspinall the first Principal of Scots.
ASTON - Originally the residence of Sydney solicitor and Woollahra Councillor Richard Holdsworth, this stone house was built c1858 on land leased the previous year from the Point Piper estate. The land parcel, of 5 acres 2 roods and 5 perches, had frontage to Victoria Road and lay to the north of present-day Scots College. When the Holdsworth family moved to Elizabeth Bay in 1872 the house was let firstly to Sir Terence Aubrey Murray and then to William Bede Dalley, before Frederick Humphrey acquired the leasehold in the first in a succession of assignments. In 1891, Frederick White of the prominent Hunter Valley pastoral dynasty took over the lease, securing the freehold ten years later. White was the last private owner of the property, which was developed into the 16 allotment Aston Gardens subdivision in the late 1920s. Holdsworth's 'Aston' was demolished in 1927 and a series of buildings containing 'luxury' flats were built on the former grounds, as well as the landmark F Glyn Gilling Spanish Mission house 'Alcooringa'/'Biscaya'.
ASTON GARDENS, Bellevue Hill - A notice announcing the name of Aston Gardens, applied to a subdivision road described as "off Victoria Road", appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of 15.11.1928 (p. 30).
AUSTRALIA STREET, Woollahra - Named changed from 'Australia' to Fletcher Street in 1947.