Murray Road, Cheltenham
The street trees east of Beecroft Road are listed on the Hornsby Shire Council Heritage Register which comprises Schedule 5 (Environmental Heritage) of the Hornsby Local Environment Plan 2013.
1, Red East. This land was first purchased by James Lawson, auctioneer, in 1888. He sold it in 1913 to William Henry Price, a city fruit merchant. Price then on-sold in the same year to Eleanor Frances (Nellie) Pines (1869-1947) the widow of Frederick Pitt Pines (1839-1901) who had been chief manager of W H Paling & Co the music company. She built the property and remained there until her income from shares in W H Paling failed in the Great Depression. She sold the house in 1931 to Ida Gertrude Taylor wife of Arthur Bernard Taylor. One of her sons, Cleveland, married Jean a daughter of the nearby home Jenambe.
The house was designed by the architect William Mark Nixon and built by James Brown of Ashfield. The house was so named because it faces the rising sun.
8, Chamong is named after a tea plantation in Sri Lanka where the original owner was chief executive of the tea company. The Gollan family lived here for two generations until the 1980s who sold to a family who, in turn, sold in 1995 to Mark and Jane Holman and they then sold in 2013 [1].
Chamong, has a lovely use of stonework in the front. In 1914, Beecroft architect William Mark Nixon designed this home and the corner house, 1, Red East. They are very different houses and display Nixon’s ability to design homes for clients with different ideas and needs. Both houses continue on large blocks.
[1] Northern District Times, Property Supplement, 6 March 2013 p3.
10 Unanderra was built around 1913 in an Arts & Crafts style [1].
[1] Northern District Times, Property Supplement, 20 November 2013
15, was built in 2003 by Sharene and Dale Lloyd who then sold it in 2013[1].
[1] Northern District Times, Property Supplement, 1 May 2013.
22, Jugiong. In the 1950s (at least) this was the home of Thelma Perryman (Mrs George Perryman). Her maiden name was Lampe and her grandfather Lampe was both an original owner of Talbingo together with also being the grandfather of the Australian author, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879-1954). After Miles Franklin collapsed in her home at 26 Grey Street Carlton in 1954 she went to stay with her cousin, Thelma. Miles Franklin moved into this house in July 1954 and remained until a few days before her death in hospital on 19 September 1954 [1].
There is some real estate advertising that states that the house was designed by Walter Burley Griffin however no other record has been found to confirm this [2]. Marion Griffin had returned to Chicago following the death of Walter in 1936 in India. Marion was in Chicago from at least 1938. The Perrymans were not recorded on an electoral roll as living in this house until 1943. George Perryman was a builder.
[1] dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/miles_franklin (accessed 4 April 2022); T Benet “Talbingo honours its favourite daughter” The Canberra Times, 21 October 1979.
[2] realestatereview.com.au, 27 August 2010.
31, Maitai.
This home was built by Ernest Wachsmann [1]in 1897. He worked in the Registrar-General’s Department. He named the house after his birthplace in New Zealand. He married Lily Armitage whose family were wealthy land owners especially around Mosman. They initially purchased 2 acres here. Maitai is a country-style cottage with verandah timberwork said to be original. A paved drive surrounds a formal garden.
Wachsmann developed the land to maintain the bush setting while having large lakes and aviaries for his bird collection. He was a world renowned ornithologist, who could mimic the calls of birds like a human lyrebird. It is said that Anna Pavlova, the ballerina still famous for her dying swan in Swan Lake, visited to see his swans when touring with Stravinsky in 1929.
Upon the death of his wife he remarried Ethel Heumann who lived in Ramona on Beecroft Road. When he was selling his home he gave part of the land to Hornsby Shire Council to add to the park around Cheltenham Oval. The Council sought his position to name an access road after him, but he declined and so it was named Castle Howard Road instead. His birds he gave to Taronga Zoo and to Sir Anthony Hordern [2].
The house, trees and garden are listed on the Hornsby Shire Council Heritage Register which comprises Schedule 5 (Environmental Heritage) of the Hornsby Local Environment Plan 2013.
[1] For more information on Wachsmann see a separate article on him which is elsewhere on this web site under People.
[2] Northern District Times, Property Supplement, 18 October 1989 p. 31.