Quarterly Journal Spring 2017 – Page 14-23
by
Pamela Smith
** ARCHITECTURE: Belvedere — a structure sited to take advantage of a fine view **
Over the last several years, the expansion of urban development in the Blacktown Council area has increasingly posed a threat to local heritage. Many fine old homes have been lost while others, like ‘Woodstock’ (Plumpton) and ‘Belvedere’ (Rooty Hill), now have a much-reduced curtilage and a compromised setting. ‘Belvedere’ for example, located on the high side of Rooty Hill Road South at Rooty Hill, originally sat on a large plot of land to take advantage of expansive views across to Bungarribee.
Fortunately, the house is protected under Blacktown City Council’s Local Environment Plan while the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage recognizes its importance as a ‘Good example of a Victorian Regency rural house’. The house, which is encircled by a bullnose verandah, gained additional heritage status because it remains as one of only a few local brick houses surviving from the 1880-90s era.
According to information on its web page, the house is thought to have been built for Rooty Hill’s station master Samuel York after he purchased the land about 1882. The death of John Ernest York, the infant son of Samuel and Elizabeth (nee May) York in 1883, indicates the couple were certainly living at Rooty Hill then. However, a newspaper report suggests the York family lived in the station master’s residence adjoining the station. York, who died in 1929, sold the property to Sydney architect Alexander Leckie Elphinstone about 1900.
Alexander Leckie Elphinstone was the grandson of cabinetmaker and builder William (1800-1877) and Janet (nee Leckie) Elphinstone, both natives of Scotland. William Elphinstone lived at Glebe and served on the City Council as an alderman from 1861 to 1863. Six of his sons entered the building trade so it is not surprising the Elphinstone family were the subject of a Bachelor of Architecture thesis written in 1978.
William and Janet’s sons were William (1827-1894), Leckie (1828-1895) who was father of the above, James Balfour (1830-1877), Robert Tosh (1834-1841), Balfour (1837-1896), David (1846-1916), Robert Liddle (1848-1918) and Gourlay Balfour (1851-1907), Dugald Guthrie (1872-1934) was a son from second marriage.
William Elphinstone played a prominent role in the formation of the Glebe School of Arts in 1860 and was a director of the Glebe and Parramatta Street Penny Bank in 1863. The object of the bank was to encourage thriftiness in the working man.
William’s grandson, Alexander Leckie Elphinstone (1854-1945), became an architect while his father (of the same name) was a builder. Elphinstone junior was responsible for designing many religious, commercial and domestic buildings, like ‘Abbotsford’ at Ashfield, the Balgownie Hotel, St Andrews Church at Seven Hills and the Summer Hill Anglican Church, which was built in 1881. His name was listed on the Architect’s Roll for NSW 1924-1936. His last address was Coombe Dingle, 5 Princes Street, Bexley.
In a world where carpentry and building were central to the lives of the Elphinstone family, it is no wonder that in January 1880 Alexander married Emma Annie Lawson. Emma was the daughter of Scottish-born furniture manufacturer, James Hunter, and Emma (nee Glen) Lawson. Lawson emigrated to Australia in 1855 at the age of nineteen. He manufactured furniture and had a warehouse in the center of Sydney. A large factory at Newtown was added to the enterprise when the firm expanded rapidly over the next two decades. Consequently, Lawson was able to bring his sons into the firm as they reached maturity and, in the 1884 Sands Directory, the business was listed as ‘Lawson, James & Sons, Cabinetmakers, Art Furniture Manufacturers and Carpet Warehousemen’. One of his sons was responsible for the establishment of the firm Lawson’s Auctioneers.
Unfortunately, Alexander only had one child, daughter Emma, by his first wife because she died in the latter part of 1880. Alexander wed for a second time in 1883 to Annie Pettit. The couple had several children and, in 1917, newspapers announced the death of Hubert Cecil Elphinstone (aged just 29), son of Alexander and Annie, who resided in a cottage called ‘Mount Joy’ (i.e. ‘Belvedere’) at Rooty Hill. The couple had only just received news that son Nicholas had been wounded while on active service in World War 1. Nicholas served out the war and died in 1974.
The house was sold to Annie Graham in 1921 who, in turn, sold it to Dr George Langrigg Lawson (1858-1948), in 1923. George Lawson had a busy and interesting life. He was born in England to surgeon and general practitioner, John Edward Spence, and Elizabeth (nee Miller) Lawson. George completed medical training in Scotland and England and worked for a time at Guy’s Hospital in London before moving to NSW in 1883. He married Agnes (nee Longley) in England, and daughter Ruth was born at Hay (NSW) in 1887. Sadly, Agnes died in 1889 while the couple were living further west at Balranald. On a visit to England in 1891, Dr Lawson is recorded on the census for Egremont as a widower.
Prior to service in the Boer War, Dr Lawson acted as resident medical officer in Gosford, Bega, Balranald and Goulburn, and spent a short time in New Zealand. An interest in infectious diseases stood him in good stead when he served in South Africa during the Boer War. Dr Lawson’s kind and caring nature was demonstrated in the personal letters he wrote to the families of men who lost their lives in that campaign.
He was so highly regarded that after the war, officers and men of his unit presented him with an illuminated address at Sydney Town Hall. Attending the event were Colonel J A K Mackay, Sir Frederick Darley, Major-General G A French and the Premier of NSW. As a further mark of respect, the men of his unit presented him with a travelling dress bag and a Coromandel writing desk. This was indeed a distinction because no other Boer War veteran received such an honor. At one time, his Boer War uniform was displayed at the Rooty Hill RSL.
Too old to enlist for World War I, Dr Lawson returned to England and trained the 2/3 City of London Field Ambulance and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. It was there he married his second wife, Marjorie Curwen.27 In 1923, the Lawson family moved to Rooty Hill where he was active in the church, and a newspaper article reported that Anglican Church parishioners had met at ‘Mount Joy’, the home of Dr. and Mrs. Lawson, to discuss holding a bazaar to swell church funds. The fundraising event was to be advertised in the Nepean Times.
In 1929, the Nepean Times newspaper mentioned the death of Dr Lawson’s mother, Elizabeth, in December 1928, at the grand age of 97. The widowed Elizabeth had moved to Australia in 1884 to live with her son.
When World War Il broke out, Dr Lawson travelled back to England with Marjorie and son John Langrigg Curwen Lawson (1926-1988) to work with the emergency services. John completed his education in England and graduated from Sandhurst Military College. The family returned to Australia where Dr Lawson died in 1948.
Dr Lawson’s obituary remarked that he had had experience on the goldfields in Western Australia and, at one-time, been the chief Government medical officer at Balranald. Until his death this extraordinary man was rector’s warden of St Alban’s Church at Rooty Hill and had a place on the honorary medical staff of Nepean District Hospital. He was accorded full military honours at his funeral and the medical flag of the 6th Imperial Bushmen Red Cross adorned his casket.
John Langrigg Curwen Lawson continued to occupy ‘Belvedere’ and married Elizabeth Queally in 1959. He became a successful builder and, according to a heritage report, carried out major renovations on the house. He reversed all the external bricks and added a lounge room and kitchen to the rear of the house. Stairs and attic rooms were added, and two chimneys were removed. When he died in 1988, the house was left to his wife Elizabeth.
Architect James Tosh is believed to have been responsible for the design of the house. Tosh, a native of England, was a well- known architect working in NSW during the latter part of the 1800s. As well as domestic and church buildings, he designed the City Tattersalls Club, won second prize for designing a model suburb and, at one time, worked in the Government Architect’s Office. He was certainly active in the Rooty Hill area because, in 1885, he called for tenders for the erection of a temporary church and the erection of R E Mawson’s residence. Furthermore, Tosh called for tenders to erect a store and residence for Mr. W. C. Yell. Harold, son of James Tosh and wife Clara Maria (nee King), married Florence E Neeves from the well-known Prospect family of that name.
However, a mystery surrounds the name of the house. If it was known as ‘Mount Joy’ during the occupation of the Elphinstone and Lawson families, who changed the name to ‘Belvedere’, and when?
Endnotes
** All References can be located on Original Snippet **
More information – Contact Blacktown & District Historical Society – Website