Gladswood House is a two-storey Gothic Revival heritage-listed former multiple occupancy residence and grand house and now apartments located at 11 Gladswood Gardens, Double Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by William Munro and possibly Hilly (attributed) and built from 1862 to 1864. It is also known as Glenyarrah; Seaford House. The property is owned by Strata Plan No. 58597 (Private). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History The house was built between 1862 and 1864. The architect's identity is uncertain, but it was most likely either William Munro or John Frederick Hilly. It was definitely Munro who built the gate pillars as there was an advertisement placed by Munro for stonemasons to build these at this house in 1864.
Ownership and occupation, 1826 - 1862 The site of the building originally formed part of the "Point Piper Estate" being a portion of the granted to Captain John Piper by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1820. Following Piper's financial difficulties, the holding was purchased in 1826 by the merchant (and former convict) Daniel Cooper of Cooper & Levy. Cooper returned to England in 1831 and on his death the major part of his estate was left to his nephew also a Daniel Cooper of the successful mercantile house of D. Cooper & co.
Although advertising for leasing of subdivision allotments of the "Point Piper Estate" can be found from May 1853, the property probably formed part of the group that was offered in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5 November 1856:
By 20 May 1857 the property having a land holding of had been leased by Cooper to the merchant Edwin Thomas Beilby for a term of 99 years at A£65 per year. The lease commenced from 1 October 1856 with payment of this agreement was a building covenant that stipulated that the lessee would: "within eight years from the lease lay out and expand exclusive of internal paintings and decoration the sum of A£2,000 in erecting substantial stone or brick buildings" and that within six months on completion of works, verification would be provided to the lessor that such amounts had been expended. This would therefore suggest that as of May 1857 construction of dwellings on the property had not commenced.
Although the Sands Directories records Beilby residing at New South Head Road up to 1861 it is unlikely that this refers to the "Gladswood" property; as on 8 January 1858 Beilby sold the leasehold to the prominent merchant, pastoralist and politician Samuel Deane Gordon MLC for A£800.
The first suggestion of building works may be recorded by an invitation to tender in the Sydney Morning Herald "for building a house at Double Bay" dated 7/4/1860, with documents available at Gordon's Bridge Street office.
Progress of construction may also be followed by tender notices in the Sydney Morning Herald. On 14 November 1860 tenders were called "for the joiners' work". Plans and specifications were available on site with further information from a Mr Munro, Glebe Road or at his Sydney office. By 25 April 1861 tenders were called for painting the "house in the course of erection at Double Bay", tenders referred again to Gordon's Bridge Street office with further information available from Mr Munro, Glebe Street. Carpenters and masons were required again by the 24/4/1862, now recorded for "Mr Gordon's residence, Double Bay". Plans available from Mr Munro, architect, Pitt St, North. By 8 August 1864 it would appear general construction of the residence and perhaps outbuildings were completed for tenders were called for "gate pillars at Glenyarrah, Double Bay", applications to Mr Munro 64 Pitt Street.
It would appear, therefore, that the residence was constructed sometime between November 1860 and substantially completed by April 1862. The residential form of the property was more than likely completed in the final months of 1864, with the dwelling being identified now by name and having its entry identified by "gate pillars". There is also a suggestion in the tender notices that the building included the involvement of an architect by the name of Munro.
We may suggest therefore that Gordon was primarily the driving force in commissioning a purpose designed and built dwelling for himself; financed in large part by the lessor, Sir Daniel Cooper.
The architect referred to in the tender notices was in all probability the little known builder/architect William Munro (1812-1881). Munro is credited with three buildings listed on the Register of the National Estate. Although without formal architectural training it appears his competence was such that he was responsible for a considerable body of ecclesiastical architecture primarily for the Roman Catholic Church. Munro's speciality was the "Gothic style" and all three registered buildings are variations on the Gothic idiom. "Gladswood House" is representative being an interpretation of the "perpendicular or pointed Gothic" applied to a domestic situation. Munro may have sought his design inspiration from pattern books of the day for a close model for "Gladswood" may be found in JC Loudon's An Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture, both in the 1833 and 1850 editions.
Design XX and Design XXI of the 1833 edition are variations of Gothic villa architecture and features in both may be found simplified or interpreted in Munro's design. The plan of the "castellated style" Design XX appears to have been manipulated to suit its Sydney harbour side location. The central axial entry has been relocated to the side and the servant wing detached as in the following Design XXI, however, the plan arrangement of the rooms is a feature found at "Gladswood". Similarly a close comparison may be made with the Gothic verandah treatment located on the side.
Design XXI "a villa in the style of pointed architecture" shares the asymmetrical facade treatment, the central emphasis of the entry, the side ornamental screen fence wall and the detached service wing. The picturesque roofscape of finials, turrets, attached Tudor chimneys and steep roof are also common features that continue in the window mouldings and castellated projecting bay windows. It is not inconceivable that "Gladswood" may have presented a similar simplified garden front with screen wall and attached service building as that indicated in this design.
Although Munro designed prestige villas for some of the prominent citizens of the day it is not known what form or appearance these took. However, that Munro was consistent in his "Gothic" detailing is evidenced in his later design for St. Andrews College at Sydney University where similar elements found at "Gladswood" re-occur.
Samuel Deane Gordon
Samuel Deane Gordon (1811-1882) built Gladswood House, then called Glenyarrah in about 1863. Samuel Deane Gordon was born in 1811 at Ballynahinch, County Down, Ireland. His father David Gordon was a farmer. His mother's name was Mary Deane.Australian Dictionary of Biography, “Samuel Deane Gordon”. Online reference He came to Sydney in 1830 at the age of 19 and worked in several mercantile houses before becoming a successful merchant. He then turned to pastoral pursuits and leased Banandra run of over 50,000 acres on the Murrumbidgee River. He moved to Sydney and established a wine and spirit business and became the Director of several important companies.
In 1839 he married Eliza Dickson in East Maitland and the couple had several children. Unfortunately she died in 1856. He remarried in 1863 in Ireland. His new bride was Emily Fielding, daughter of Joshua Fielding esq. of Belfast.
During the 1860s he acquired more pastoral properties and became very wealthy. He was a prominent Presbyterian became a founder of St Andrew's College, Sydney, and member of its council. He was also a vice-president of the Highland Society and a member of the Victoria Club and the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He joined the committee of the Chamber of Commerce in 1867 and in the 1870s served on the committees of the Benevolent Asylum, the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary and the Hospital for Sick Children, and was a vice-president of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Horticultural Society of New South Wales.
It is to Gordon's occupation that the first naming of the building Glenyarrah may be attributed. The earliest identification by name being the tender notices of 18 August 1864. G. Nesta Griffiths in her book "Point Piper Past and Present" suggests the name may be a compilation of the Scottish "glen" for valley and the anglicised aboriginal word "yarrah" for gum tree, being "Valley of the Gums". The Woollahra History & Heritage Society date the house to 1856, noting that the design may possibly be attributed to architect J. F. Hilly and note that under Gordon's occupation it was called "Seaford House" and this was changed to "Glenyarrah" during the stay (1883-1913) of Mr T. H. Kelly Snr. and family and later under Mr Spencer Brunton to Gladswood. Gordon may not have been Gladswood's first resident, for an undated Council Rate Assessment entry, possibly no later than 1863, records Gordon as owner with a J. H. Atkinson as "person rated". The rate records of 1863-64 also show both S. D. Gordon and the merchant and member of parliament William Walker as being "rated persons" for Gladswood, with Walker also entered for the adjacent property. G. Nesta Griffiths suggests that Walker took occupation of Gladswood whilst his own house Redleaf" was being constructed on the neighbouring property.
The earliest verifiable illustration of "Gladswood" forms part of the background to a general view of Double Bay in The Illustrated Sydney News of 23 December 1871. A glimpse of the property within its context of Double Bay may be obtained from some general views of the period. An early photograph thought to date from around the 1870s shows the building in what must have been its early appearance at the time of Gordon's occupation. This clearly shows that the present southern wing is a later extension, it also shows the crenulated service wing compound wall with verandah and servant block in the background. An Eric Bayliss photograph of indicates the building's former commanding position on the point between the two bays.
Gordon's occupation continued until his death in 1882 and is recorded in his monogram incorporated in the strained glass window on either side of the entry vestibule and panels that light the main stair. On his death Gordon left Glenyarrah to his daughter Jessie Maria Gordon who in turn sub-let the property to a F. B. Lark from 1883 to 1885. Both Munro and Gordon were associated with the setting up of St. Andrew's College at the University of Sydney, while the latter is commemorated with a fine stained-glass window in St. Andrew's Scots Church in Rose Bay. He died in 1882 and having been predeceased by his second wife he left his fortune to his surviving three daughters. Jessie Maria Gordon inherited Gladswood House but as she had married and lived in England she leased the house to Francis Bothamley Lark for two years and then to Thomas Hussey Kelly who subsequently bought the house.
The Kelly family
In 1885 the property was sub-let to Thomas Hussey Kelly (1830-1901) a wool-broker and businessman. Kelly bought the leasehold of Gladswood House in 1887 for A£12,000 and went on to buy the freehold in May 1901, three months before he died. The extent and form of the property at the time of Kelly's occupation may be obtained from a Water Board Plan of 1895.