Woollahra House

The second Woollahra House c. 1885, built in 1883 by William Charles Cooper

There were two houses called Woollahra House built on the same site in Point Piper, Sydney, Australia. The first was built in 1856 by Sir Daniel Cooper (picture shown below) and the second by his son William Charles Cooper in 1883 (picture on the right). Both houses have been demolished, but two buildings still remain from the original structure. The gatekeeper's lodge from Sir Daniel Cooper's house, which was built in 1871, is now the Rose Bay Police Station, and the stables (picture at bottom) which are now Wyuna Court, a prestigious block of apartments. These buildings in the Municipality of Woollahra are of some historical interest.

Sir Daniel Cooper

The two houses called Woollahra House. The top photo shows the first house built in 1856 by Sir Daniel Cooper, and the bottom photo, with the same outbuildings in the foreground but a larger house in the background, shows the second "Woollahra House" built by William Charles Cooper in 1883
Rose Bay Police Station

Daniel Cooper was born in 1821 in Lancashire, England. He was the second son of Thomas Cooper, a merchant and came to Australia as a child with his parents. He returned to England at the age of 14 to complete his education but came back to Australia in 1843 and became a commercial partner with James Holt. He later became a member of Parliament and was elected as Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.[1] In 1846 he married Elizabeth Hill, who was the third daughter of William Hill Esq of Sydney. The couple had two sons and five daughters over the next thirteen years while they lived in Sydney.[2]

In 1856 Cooper started building Woollahra House, and to mark the occasion he held a very large ceremony to lay the foundation stone, at which 400 guests were present.[3] While the house was being built, the Coopers lived in the nearby residence called Rose Bay Lodge, which Daniel owned at that time. It is not certain when exactly the Cooper family moved into Woollahra House, but it was before 1860 as there is a birth notice for a son born at Rose Bay Lodge in July 1860 to the wife of Walter Lamb, who were known to be renting the Lodge at about this time.[4]

The top photo on the right shows the house that Cooper built. The lower photo is the larger house built by his son in 1883. In both photos the out buildings in the foreground are the same but the houses in the background are different, showing that two separate houses called Woollahra House were actually built.

Cooper did not live at Woollahra House for long as in 1861 he sailed to England with his family and did not return.[5] He did, however, retain ownership of the property for the next 22 years while he lived in England. Anthony Trollope in 1873 during his visit to Australia made some observations about the original house as follows;

"Woollahra is a magnificent property covered with villa and gardens, all looking down to the sea. In England it would be worth half a million of money."

Edward Smith Hill

The next resident of Woollahra House was Edward Smith Hill, who was the brother in law of Sir Daniel Cooper. He came to Woollahra House in 1862 and stayed there until his death in 1880. His obituary of 1880 says that he resided at Woollahra House for the last 18 years.[6] Hill was the brother of Daniel Cooper's wife Elizabeth and of George Hill (1802–1883) who was the Mayor of Sydney in the 1850s.[7]

Hill was born in 1819 in Sydney. His parents were William Hill and Mary Johnson, who had both been convicts but had acquired wealth through business. In 1844 he married Mary Ann Pye, the eldest daughter of Joseph Pye Esq., of Eastern Creek.[8] Edward became a wine and spirit merchant, but by the time he moved into Woollahra House he had retired and become a naturalist.[9] He wrote several papers on flora and fauna and was interested in geology.

He died after a long illness at Woollahra House in 1880 and left his wife as a widow without children.[10]

William Charles Cooper

William Charles Cooper was born in 1851 in Sydney.[11] He was the second son of Daniel Cooper, who built the first Woollahra house. His mother was Elizabeth Hill, the third daughter of William Hill Esq of Sydney. When he was only one year old he inherited a great deal of property from his great uncle, Daniel Cooper and this was held in trust for him until he came of age in 1872.[12]

In 1876 he married Alice Helen Hill, and they had three sons and one daughter.[13] In 1882 William purchased the original Woollahra House from his father Sir Daniel Cooper and in 1883 the foundation stone was laid by Mrs William Cooper for the second Woollahra House. While the house was being constructed the Coopers lived at nearby Kambala which was then owned by Walter Lamb.[14]

While he was in Sydney Cooper had an interest in horseracing and owned several notable racehorses. He was elected committeeman of the Australian Jockey Club in 1887,[15] but in the following year he resigned as the family decided to live in England. Although he left Sydney in 1888 William Cooper retained ownership of Woollahra House until 1899 and either rented it or allowed his friends and relatives to reside there for short periods.

Lady Isabella Martin

Isabella Martin was born in 1832 in Sydney. She was the eldest daughter of Mr William Long, who owned Tusculum in Potts Point. Long was a wine and spirit merchant who had become very wealthy.[16]

In 1853 Isabella married James Martin, who was a lawyer and a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He later became attorney-general and was then appointed chief justice.[17]

By the middle of the 1870s Lady Martin had born 15 children. Sir James Martin had bought Clarens in Potts Point, but Lady Martin became increasingly dissatisfied with the house as her family grew, and it became too small for such a large number of children. She was also concerned about the location of the house. It was on Rushcutter's Bay, which at that time was associated with an outbreak of typhoid fever.

In 1880 and 1881 her sister and two of her children died and she became increasingly concerned about the health of her family.[18] She had inherited considerable wealth from her father, who had set up a Trust Fund for her in his will.[19] In 1882 she left her husband and, with her own wealth, rented houses further away from the central part of Sydney.[20] The first house she rented was Greycliffe in Vaucluse, and the Sands Directory shows that she stayed there until 1889, when she moved to Woollahra House. At this time the house was still owned by William Charles Cooper, who had moved to England. The Sands Directory shows that she rented Woollahra House from 1889 until 1992. The beach at the front of the house was later named Lady Martin Beach in her honour.

Sir and Lady Paston-Cooper

Sir and Lady Astley Paston-Cooper were English, and they stayed at Woollahra House from 1896 until 1898 during a visit to Australia. During this time they frequently appeared in the social columns of the Sydney newspapers because they liked to entertain. In 1897 Lady Paston-Cooper gave a garden party at Woollahra House, and a photograph (see below) was published in The Sydney Mail.[21]

A garden party given by Lady Paston-Cooper at Woollahra House in 1897.

The paper gave the following description of the event.

"The Woollahra House grounds are so pretty that to those who visited the place for the first time the charm of the situation appealed very strongly. Lady Cooper was assisted in her reception duties by the Hon. Mrs. Ferguson and also by Sir Astley Paston Cooper and was exceedingly kind in looking after the pleaure of her guests, who must have numbered over 200. A tent was erected on one of the terraces of the lawn, where everyone regaled themselves with delicious strawberries and crem, a luxury that seems one of the chief attractions of garden fetes. Tea and dainty sweets were served in the ballroom which was generously decorated with masses of arum lilies and the choicest of other blossoms."[22]

In 1898 William Charles Cooper decided to live in England permanently. The following year in 1899 the estate, which at that time was 16 hectares, was subdivided and put on the market. Woollahra House retained 2 hectares of this area. A description of the house was given in the newspaper advertisement.

”This splendid residence is built of stone and contains the following large accommodation.
On the ground floor a delightful drawing-room, attractive library, morning-room, study and gentleman’s room, superior dining-room, magnificent wide hall leading to the handsome and attractive ballroom and splendid billiard-room.
On the first floor there are eleven bedrooms besides drawing-room, boudoir, linen rooms, servants sleeping rooms and several bathrooms.
The mansion is two stories in height, and verandahs and balconies are extensive and wide. The out conveniences are numerous and include large stone stable, coach houses, man's rooms etc and domestic offices.[23]

Thomas Longworth bought the house and lived there until his death in 1927. He was the longest resident of Woollahra House

Thomas Longworth

William Longworth (1892–1969), the son of Thomas Longworth, who competed in the Olympic Games of 1912 when he was still a resident of Woollahra House.

Thomas Longworth was born in 1857 at Newcastle. His parents were Thomas Longworth and Rose Gardiner, who were from the Channel Islands. Thomas worked in a coal mine, first in Newcastle and then in Singleton when the family opened their own small mine there.[24]

In 1884 he married Frances Nowlan and over the next twenty years they had a large family of seven sons and two daughters. One of their sons, William, who was born in 1892, was a very good swimmer, and in 1912, while he was still a resident of Woollahra House, competed at the Olympic Games.[25] His photo at the Olympic Games is at the right.

In 1894 Thomas became a member of the Great Cobar Mining Syndicate which reopened the Cobar Copper Mine and considerably expanded and improved it. This syndicate later in 1908 founded the Australian Woollen Mills in Marrickville, and Thomas was the chairman here until 1927. During World War 1 the mill produced large quantities of khaki for the Australian Imperial Force. Thomas also had interests in brickworks, potteries, timber-mills and pastoral properties and accumulated considerable wealth.

While he lived at Woollahra House he furthered his interest in racehorses and owned, with his brother, several notable thoroughbreds. He also built a steam yacht called Cobar for use on Sydney Harbour. Thomas died at Woollahra House in 1927.[26]

In 1929 the house was sold to a business group who subdivided and sold the land and marketed the house as a site "for demolition and removal within four months of the date of sale".[27]

Surviving buildings of Woollahra House

The gatekeeper's lodge of Woollahra House still survives and is now the Rose Bay Police Station. The other substantial part which remains is the stables which were converted to the prestigious apartments of Wyuna Court. The following photos show the stables as they were in 1929 when the house was sold. There is also a photo taken two years later showing them converted to Wyuna court with the partly bare demolition site of Woollahra house still visible. The third photo is Wyuna Court today.

James Haydon Leslie Arnott, CEO Arnott's Biscuits, bought the old stables, converted them and lived there until he died in 1931.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woollahra House.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Point Piper, New South Wales.

References

  1. ↑ Martin, A. W., "Cooper, Sir Daniel (1821–1902)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 3, Melbourne University Press, 1969, p. 452
  2. ↑ Burke, Sir Gernard, 1891, "Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry", E. A. Petherick and Co., p. 54
  3. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 15 December 1856, p. 5.
  4. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 21 July 1860, p. 10
  5. ↑ Martin, A. W., p. 452.
  6. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 1880, p. 5.
  7. ↑ Rutledge M., 1972, “Hill, George (1802–1883), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 4, Melbourne Uni Press, pp. 298-9.
  8. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 27 March 1844, p. 3.
  9. ↑ Rutledge M., 1972, p. 298.
  10. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 1880, p. 5.
  11. ↑ New South Wales, Births Deaths and Marriages
  12. ↑ Sharp A. et al, 2004, “Histories of Green Square”, University of NSW, p. 36.
  13. ↑ Obituary for Sir William Cooper, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 September 1925, p. 13
  14. ↑ Latta, D. 1986 ‘Lost Glories: A Memorial to Forgotten Australian Buildings” , Angus and Robertson, p. 42.
  15. ↑ Obituary for Sir William Cooper, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 September 1925, p. 13
  16. ↑ Obituary of Lady Martin, The Mercury (Tasmania) 13 April 1909, p. 5.
  17. ↑ Nairn, B. 1974, “Martin, Sir James (1820–1886) “, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 5, Melbourne University Press, pp. 216-9.
  18. ↑ Nairn, B. 1974
  19. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 25 December 1909, p. 14.
  20. ↑ Nairn, B. 1974
  21. ↑ The Sydney Mail, 25 September 1897, p. 662.
  22. ↑ The Sydney Mail, 25 September 1897, p. 650.
  23. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 10 May 1899, p. 3.
  24. ↑ Atchison, J. 1986, “Longworth, Thomas (1857–1927)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 10, Melbourne University Press, 143-4.
  25. ↑ Walsh, G. P., 1986, “Longworth, William (1892–1969)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 10, Melbourne University Press, p. 144.
  26. ↑ Atchison, J. 1986, p.144.
  27. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 14 March 1929, p. 4.

Coordinates: 33°51′57″S 151°15′14″E / 33.8658°S 151.2540°E / -33.8658; 151.2540

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