| 1.5 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLACE
1.5.1 Boyd's Orchard and Its Subdivision:
In 1832 after serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Veteran's Corp, Thomas Boyd was granted 100 acres of land in Lace Cove in the Parish of Gordon. He named his property "Toulouse Farm" after the victorious Battle of Toulouse, his last famous engagement in the Napoleonic Wars.
Initially Boyd and his sons cut the timber from his grant for use in the Colony, and then planted an orchard. In 1845 Boyd established a successful timber business in Sussex Street in Sydney.
In 1856, Toulouse Farm was transferred to Thomas Boyd's son James. By the 188-s the farm became known locally as "Boyd's orchard".
The orchard was first subdivided in 1882. However, it would appear that the land did not sell at this time because a new subdivision plan was drawn up in 1884 (see Fig 1.28). Both these plans show the locaiton of Boyd's house and stable adjacent to the Government Road to Kissing Point, which divided his property in two. This would position these buildings where the "Paisley" flats now stand at 4-6 Kissing Point Road.
Ivan Auprince occupied the existing house on Lane Cove Road. It had, and still does have, spectacular views southwards over the North Shore to Sydney and beyond to Botany Bay. Collinridge included illustrations of Ivan Auprince's residence and the view from it in his journal, Progress.
Herman Weise established a store on his land. This may have been no more than a large shed or two as are visible in a photograph of Lane Cove Road taken c1900. A 1902 auction notice also shows a building located on Weise's land in the approximate location of these sheds.
The c1890 photograph of Eastern Road Station also shows a small building with a verandah and hipped roof located on what appears to be Lot 5 of Boyd's estate, (but this is not clear) facing Lane Cove Road. The same building, which is weatherboard with a corrugated iron roof, is also shown in a later photograph of Lane Cove Road.
It is not known who built or occupied this shop in its early years. It predates Herman Weise's purchase of the adjoining land. The only listing included in Sands in the early years of this century on Lane Cove Road between Hillview and Godfrey is Weise's store. It is not known whether Weise used this building or whether it was possibly a real estate sales office for Boyd's estate. Sands lists an estate agent between Weise and Godfrey in 1909 and 1910.
It would appear that Marshall purchased his land with the existing shop, and that Boyles and Humbert did not develop their land. Auprince bought Boyles' lot in 1899.
Lots 6, 7 and 8 of Section 3 of Boyd's estate were refinanced by the Port Jackson Land and Investment Co. Ltd during the 1890s and were not sold until 1901, to F.L Poole and A.L Holmes. It is not clear who built the five houses along Kissing Point Road and the duplex in Boyd Street, or when they were built. However, all existed by 1902. Occupants are shown in al the houses in Sands for 1902, and the buildings are aslo shown on the 1902 auction notice for the remainder of Boyd's estate.
However, some of the buildings may be pre-1900. Edwards and Berwick, who were listed as occupants by Sands in 1902, are also listed as residents of Turramurra by Collingridge in 1987. It should be noted that Collingridge does not give addresses for the residents and thus this evidence is far from conclusive. The c1900 photograph taken of Lane Cove Road Turramurra, Looking East, shows the house on the corner of Kissing Point Road and Lance Cove Road with a large 'Chemist' sign on its wall. The adjoining house in Kissing Point Road is also shown, both set in semi-mature gardens. It would appear that all the buildings were rented out at this time and were not occupied by the owners. Figure 1.34 shows the occupants of the properties as given in Sands between 1902 and 1932-1933.
In 1902, the Port Jackson Land and Investment Co. Ltd bought the remaining lots of Section 3 of Boyd's Estate and sold Lots 11 to 15 to Ivan Auprince and Lot 10 to Thomasine Loney in the same year.
1.5.2 Hillview: From health Resort to community health resource and information centre
The first mention of Auprince's property being known as Hillview was in 1902. Sands lists Mrs E.Burton as operating the 'Hill View' health resort. It is not known when the place was used in this way, but its location close to the railway station and its wonderful situation on the top of the hill with panoramic views over the North Shore was ideal for this type of use. The first additions to the original cottage, the eastern and western terracotta-block wings, were probably built at about this time in order to provide accomodation for guests. A detailed physical survey of the building would reveal evidence of the various stages of growth in the building. (A survey of the cottage was beyond the scope of this report).
In December 1905, Auprince leased 'house and land including orchard and tennis court' to Jean Murray for a period of two and a half years. The location of the original tennis court is not known. Prior to the expiration of this lease, Auprince sold the property to Edmund Sheffield Willoughby Paul in 1907, in two stages. Paul purchased the southern allotments (Lots 11 to 15) in April and then purchased the northern allotments (Lots 1-3) later in October. In November of 1907, Paul also bought Kit 10 from W.H. Watson.
Miss Murray continued to run the 'Hill View' boarding house until 1913. It has been reported that Miss Murray ran a quality establishment, reputedly serving the 'best table' on the North Shore. The property was self-supporting with vegetable gardens, an orchard, poultry and a cow. These features are clearly visible in a photograph of Hillview taken in 1913. A row of camphor laurels was planted along the western boundary of the site.
By 1914, Miss Murray had moved to the 'Cooinoo' guesthouse on the southern corner of Boyd Street and Kissing Point Road, where she was the proprieter.
In 1913, Paul continued to expand the boundaries of Hillview by purchasing Lots 4 and 9 of Boyd's estate. Photographic evidence suggests that Lots 9 and 10 had remained undeveloped prior to Paul's purchase and that Weise's sheds had been removed from Lot 4 by this time.
In c1913, Paul also built a large two-storey building behind the original cottage. The new building which was oriented away from the street and towards the view provided all the facilities necessary for a quality guesthouse. These included a library, dining room, drawing room, breakfast room, morning room (parlour) and conservatory. A viewing platform over the front porch afforded spectacular views of Sydney. The building boasted high-quality materials and finishes throughout, including marble columns in the entrance hall, quality joinery, hardware, plasterwork, leadlight, fireplaces, and verandahs with detailed timber balustrades.
By 1915, a six-car garage with a flat over head had been built against the western boundary of the property. A red gravel driveway encircled the buildings entering the property adjacent to the original cottage, passing in fron of the new guest house, and leaing via a gateway to the north of the garages. A stone or terracotta-block wall with a cast iron post and rail fence on top existed along the Lane Cove Road Boundary of the property.
The whole development involved substantial terracing of the site, including a large terraced area to the west of the the new building for a croquet lawn. Another substantial embankment existed below the driveway in front of the guest house. A stair was cut into the bank opposite the front door leading down to a large lawn area. A spur of the driveway extended around the western side of this lawn area to Boyd Street, but it appears that it may not have generally been used by vehicles and that there was no access to Boyd Street.
Early alterations and additions to the guesthouse included the construction of a two-storey verandah at the northern end of the east elevation of the building c1915. Other alterations are not known, as a detailed physical survey of the building has not been carried out.
In addition, a rear wing was added to the back of the cottage, c1915, linking the eralier east and west wings and creating an internal court-yard. It included bathrooms, bedrooms and balconies overlooking the view. Again, the finishes were of high quality. Even a sophisticated needle spray shower, imported from France, was installed.
The whole Hillview Guesthouse complex was leased to Philomena Gertrude Haddy from 1915 to 1924. Mr Paul occupied a portion of the guesthouse during this period, as did a Mr William Jamieson J.P (1916-1919). It is reported that Mr Paul then had a row with Miss Haddy c1923-1924 and decided to convert Hillview into flats. Sands has no listing for Hillview in 1925, and a listing for 'Hillview flats' in 1926. Residents of the flats from 1926 to 1932-1933 as listed by Sands are included in Figure 1.34.
During the 1920s through to the 1940s flats were regarded with great suspicion in Ku-ring-gai, threatening 'not only the environmental quality of the suburb, but also its moral tone'. The council had proclaimed 'residential districts', most of which excluded flats, in 1924 and 1930. However, in 1946, with increasing pressure to build flats near railway stations, a number of residential districts allowing this type of development along the highway/railway spine were proclaimed. This responded to the widening of Pacific Highway, transforming it from a local road to a major highway. The move towards allowing for higher density use was seen 'both as a means of compensating owners for loss of road frontage, and as an alternative to commercial 'ribbon development'.
Substantial alterations were carried out to both the original cottage and the c19136 building at the time. The cottage was converte to four flats, while the c1913 building contained three flats. Mr Paul occupied Flat 5, which comprised the front rooms of the guesthouse building on all three levels overlooking the view of Sydney. Flat 8 was over the garages.
A two-storey addition was constructed on the eastern side of the c1913 building, replacing the former conservatory with the balcony over. It featured groups of double-hung windows and fibrous cement sheet panels between brick piers.
In 1924 Mr Paul visited the Schweppes Burma Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley. Paul acquired the pavilion and had it shipped to Australia in 1927 and erected in the RAS showground in Sydney. Unfortunately the Pavilion burnt down in 1946. The gates however, which were of the same carved timber as the pavilion, were erected in the grounds of Hillview to the north of the garages, and have since passed to one of Paul's Threlfall descendants.
Mr Paul also purchased in England two sets of wrought iron gates for erection at Hillview. These consisted of two pairs of vehicular gates and two pedestrian gates and were made with no welded joints at Brierley Hill. A new sandstone wall was erected along the Lane Cove Road boundary of the property and the gates hung between tall stone piers. The wall was topped by iron chains hanging between the lions' heads. The date of construction is not known, but the wall certainly existed prior to the widening of the Pacific Highway in 1935-1936 and presumably before notification of the proposed road widening. The gates were painted black with some of the detail done in gold leaf. In 1935-1936, the DMR resumed a portion of land along the northern boundary of Hillview and relocated about half the length of the wall and the eastern gates to the new boundary.
During the 1920s-1930s the eastern portion of the site, which had initially been used for vegetable gardens, chook runs and cow pasture was terraced. Rockeries of semi-circular sandstone garden beds stepped down the hill and were interspersed with grass embankments, terraces and paths. Stone stairs connected the various levels and lead down to a lanw tennis court in the bottom south-east corner of the site.
The grassed embankment between the large house and the croquet lawn was also developed as rockeries at this time.
A laundry was built on the eastern boundary of the site, where the chook runs were formerly located. A tall lattice enclosure surrounded the laundry and drying yard.
Mr Paul's sister, Rosalie Threlfall, came to live with him at Hillview c1930 until she died in 1935. In 1937, Mrs Threlfall's son and his family moved into Flat 7. This was located on the first floor at the rear of the c1913 building. At that time, Paul employed two housekeepers and two gardners, including Mr Walter Ludwig, who also acted as his chauffeur.
Mr Paul owned two Rolls Royce cars, a 1921 Silver Ghost and a 1928 Phantom I, and an Austin which were housed in the northern-most garages. Two of the garages were used for storage of gardening equipment and other equipment such as new ladders. After the war, the sixth garage was used by Mr Paul's nephew for his car.
During the 1930s, Paul built a cottage at the northern end of Lot 9 of the estate, near the garages. This cottage and some outbuildings are shown on the MWS&DB 1959 plan of the site and in the 1965 council photos. This accommodated Paul's caretaker/gardener/chauffeur. Mr Ludwig, who had worked as a gardner at Hillview from 1927, moved into the gardnener's cottage with his family after WWII.
During the late 1930s, Mr Paul employed an artist friend called Wolinski to paint the detailed plaster ceilings in the dining room and hall of Flat 5 Wolenski also painted the gates.
In February 1942, during the war, Paul moved the Schweppes office to the fron cottage at Hillview. An air raid shelter was dug in the area known as 'the paddock' (lot 9), near the gardener's cottage. Michael Threlfall wrote: 'Because of the clay ground, as soon as it rained, the shelter filled with water and remained that way until it was eventually filled in'.
Sandbags were piled high to protect th c1913 building.
Mr Paul died at home in 1951 after a long illness. Although Mr Paul wanted Hillview to become a hospital for war veterans, inadequacies in his will led to it being declared invalid, and his estate passed to his nephew Martin Threlfall and his sister Miss Annie Paul. In 1952, Hillview was put up for auction, but was passed in. Martyn Threlfall accepted the property as his share of the estate.
In 1955, Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council approved subdivision of the Hillview land into six allotments. Lot 6 of DP 26828, which included the garages, was zoned for county road. Prior to his death in 1966, Martyn Threlfall attempted to have Ku-ring-gain Municipal Council make a decision on the zoning of Lot 5, which included the original cottage and the c1913 building. However, this was not forthcoming.
In 1963-1964, the two residential blocks at the south-eastern corner of the site facing Boyd Street were sold, and two houses were built. The house at 18 Boyd Street was built by John Fahey on the former tennis court belonging to Hillview. However, the line of the court is still clearly visible with its retaining walls, rockeries and drains, having been substantially retained. In addition to the rockeries, grass embankments and stone stairs leading down to the court are still substantially intact in the rear gardens of both houses, even if somewhat overgrown.
A series of photographs taken by Ku-ring-gain Municipal Council of Hillview c1965 show a well maintained estate. The lawns, including the steep embankments, are well mown, the camphor laurel heges are clipped (pollarded) and a clipped hedge is being maintained at the northern end of the croquet lawn. The buildings appear to be in good condition, although the viewing platform over the entrance porch of the c1913 building has been removed. The platform had been very exposed to the weather and had probably been in poor condition by this time. In addition, the balcony over the front porch had been enclosed by large sliding windows.
Lot 4 of the new subdivision, 6 Boyd Street, appears to have been developed as flats during the 1970s. However the fate of the Hillview Flats had still not been determined. The council had rejected proposals for the place to be developed as home units. Mrs Threlfall vacated the property in 1973, and in 1974, Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council purchased Hillview for $315,000. By this time the condition of the building and garden had deteriorated.
Howard Tanner, Architect, took a series of photographs of the buildings at this time recording details such as the stairs, leadlight windows, mosaic tiles, fireplaces, ceilings, door hardware and bathroom fittings. These are included in Appendix E of this report.
The property was tenanted on a short-term basis by both council employees and others, pending a decision on its fate, whether it be for units or townhouses, or for community purposes. It became a major white elephant for the council. In December 1977, Hornsby Ku-ring-gai District Hospital leased the property for a term of five years. By this time the buildings and grounds had become extremely run down.
Using funds raised by the combined Rotary Clubs of Ku-ring-gai, the hospital carried out a refurbishment of the buildings prior to the occupation. This included general repairs, the upgrading of bathroom facilities (thus early bath and shower fittings were removed), the replacement of the leadlight in the front door and stair hall windows in the c1913 building with clear glass, the removal of early fireplace grates and the blocking up of most fireplaces.
The flat over the garages may have been altered about this time also, with wardrobes built in and the panel doors replaced with flush doors. The bathroom and kitchen were probably refitted prior to this, possibly by the Threlfalls or their tenants.
Apart from these changes, the buildings remained substantially intact. The property became known as the Hillview Community Health Resource and Information Centre.
In 1980, the Hospital bought Hillview from the council for $345,000, again with funds raised by local donations. Prior to this sale the council removed the wrought iron gates from the two Pacific Highway entrances, because the openings were narrow and the gates were getting damaged. The intermediate stone pillars were also removed.
In 1986, the gates were returned to the site following restoration and were erected in a 'screened close' designed by B.D Jessup, a local architect.
In 1994, substantial alterations were made to the original cottage. These included the raising of the floor level of the five main spaces in the building by approximately 50mm to a unified level, the alteration, enlargement, or relocation of some internal openings, the replacement of a previous unsympathetic covered walkway with the current stepped flat-roofed timber structure and replacement of the original mosaic tiles in the front and side porches.
1.5.3 Subdivision and development of the Kissing Point Road and Boyd Street Allotments
The houses along Kissing Point Road and the duplex in Boyd Street were gradually sold to individual owners from 1903. Figure 1.49 shows the subdivision of these allotments carried out at this time. Figure 1.34 shows the occupants of the houses as listed ni Sands, 1902 to 1932-1933.
The three Hurst sisters purchased the house on the corner of Kissing Point Road and Boyd Street in 1903, and named it Mayfield. The Hursts occupied the house from this time until at least 1932-1933. Beyond this date the history of the property is not known, except that it remains as a private residence today.
Florence Margaret Godfrey purchased the house and chemist shop on the corner of Kissing Point Road and Lance Cove Road in 1908. However, the Godfrey's had occupied the house and operated the chemist shop from at least as early as 1902. The Godfrey's also became long term residents of the street, continuing their occupation until at least 1932-1933. It would appear that others did rent the property for short periods from 1913 to 1914 and in 1917, and that from 1924, the dentist, Dr E.H Bestic shared the premises with the Godfreys. It is not know when the chemist shop and dental surgery were closed, but the building remains as a residence with little external change.
The middle house, a weatherboard cottage at 4 Kissing Point Road, was used as a preparatory school by Miss E.A Boylon between 1902 and 1908. Then it was purchased by the Valentines who named it Mokoan and lived there until at least 1932-1933. This cottage together with the adjoining one at No. 6, were demolished c1970s to make way for flats.
M.J. McKune purchased the duplex in Boyd Street in 1909. The duplex had many occupants up to 1932-1933. However, Sands indicates that Mrs E.L Warburton lived in the weatherboard cottage at 6 Kissing Point Road from 1919 to 1932-1933 and that A. Brown occupied 'Poizers', 2 Kissing Point Road, from 1925 to 1932-1933.
The cottages in this Kissing Point Road and Boyd Street development changed very little until the 1970s. A 1955 plan drawn by the MWS&DB shows the footprints of the buildings, and also indicates the materials of construction and fence lines at that time. A series of photographs taken by Ku-ring-gai Muncipal Council c1965 supports this plan and shows the two weatherboard cottages later demolished for the 'Paisley' flats.
1.5.4 Lane Cove Road (Pacific Highway) Shops
The portion of Boyd's estate facing Lane Cove Road remained relatively undeveloped for many years following the sale of the land in 1893. It was not until c1910 that at two storey brick building containing a pair of shops and residence over was built. The building included a pair of bronze and leadlight shop fronts facing the street (one which is still extant), with a verandah over the full width of the footpath. This is shown clearly in a photograph taken of Lane Cove Road, c1910-1915. An earlier weatherboard shop (discussed in Section 1.5.1 above) is also shown on the adjoining land.
The weatherboard shop remained until the mid-1930s, when the Pacific Highway was widened and the existing bank building was constructed. The bank was a two-storey rendered brick structure built in the Art Deco style for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
It is probable that it was about the time of the Pacific Highway widening in 1936 that the Federation-style shops lost their wide verandah. It was replaced with the current awning.
The occupants of the shops along Lane Cove Road as listed in Sands between 1902 and 1932-1933 are shown in Fig 1.34. It should be noted that Sands does not give street numbers for these buildings unitl 1932-1933. Thus, the list of occupants for 1356-1360 Pacific Highway may not be accurate for the earlier years of this century. It has been assumed that more than one business may have operated from one premises (eg the chemist shop may have acted as an agent for the Government Savings Bank, and F.A Rose may have lived above the chemist shop). |
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