Graythwaite
Graythwaite is a heritage-listed former private home and former hospital and now school administration building located at 20 Edward Street, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Goold and Hilling and Edmund Blacket and built from 1858 to 1885 by Aaron Loveridge. The property is owned by the Sydney Church of England Grammar School. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 November 2002.
History
In September 1832, Thomas Walker, a public official, paid A£60 and nine shillings for a land grant. On the 25 October 1833, Thomas Walker conveyed of his grant, to the north and east of where Graythwaite was later built, to William Miller, for £20 and thirteen shillings. At the time of the purchase of, Walker's address was 41 Pitt Street, Sydney. When the land was surveyed in 1832, there were no buildings on the land. By 1837, Walker had built himself a residence on his grant almost adjacent to Miller's newly built house. An 1837 plan of the Government of New South Wales Reserve on North Shore shows Walker's and Miller's houses. In January 1845 Walker drew up his will bequeathing his house "Euroka" and to his wife and he died in 1850.Three years after his death, the house and remaining land was sold to George Tuting, a mercer of Pitt Street, Sydney for £1,500. In that conveyance, the grounds are described as. Tuting held the land only briefly, possibly for the purposes of speculation at a time when land and house prices boomed in the early 1850s after the discovery of gold. He sold the house and land in 1853, for more than double what he had bought it for.
The new owner, Edwin Sayers, was a shipowner who had arrived in Sydney from Melbourne about 1850. He was mainly interested in the coastal shipping trade. Sayers occupied Euroka and remained there until 1868. Sayers added a large new two-storey sandstone wing, created the terracing and planted an orchard on the lower grassed area on Union Street. As a merchant seeking to utilise all of his available capital and with the problems of unexpected calls being made upon his resources, from unexpected financial crises or due to the vagaries of shipping weather, Sayers needed to use his substantial house as security for loans at times. Hence, on 23 July 1855, Tuting conveyed the house and land to Edwin Sayers, Sydney for £3,900. Sayers' financial affairs became embarrassed and he mortgaged his home.
On 16 April 1860 Sayers conveyed the title to Clark Irving and others as trustees for the benefit of Sayers' creditors. On 20 April 1860 further conveyance of all of Sayers' property to trustees was signed. Sayers' financial difficulties continued until 1867 when the property was offered at auction by Richardson & Wrench, on behalf of the mortgagee, on 8 July 1867. There were no buyers.
The property was next purchased by Thomas Allwright Dibbs, the manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. He had been buying up many parcels of land on the North Shore. By 1882 Graythwaite was the family home of Thomas Dibbs and in 1888 the mortgage of 1882 was discharged. Dibbs,, demolished Walker's house and added to the Sayers sandstone building to complete Euroka / Graythwaite as it remains today. Dibbs was a huge landowner on the lower north shore and bought the adjoining Holtermann property when Holtermann died and later sold it to the church for Shore School. Apparently Holtermann closely guarded access to his tower and so many of the early photographic panoramas of Sydney were taken from Graythwaite instead. Most of the current garden dates from Dibbs . The garden includes a pepper berry/ white walnut, a very rare rainforest species, native to northern NSW rainforests and once native to the Illawarra. Only one other specimen of it is known in Sydney, in Prince Alfred Park. Both may owe their presence to associations with colonial botanists James Backhouse and Allan Cunningham, and then-director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Charles Moore, who did much to promote the planting of NSW and Queensland rainforest tree species on public sites.
Dibbs' prestige as well as his reputation as an astute and skillful manager of the Bank underlay his renown. His management of the Bank was generally credited with saving it from the fate of other less fortunate banks in the 1890s Depression. From his interest in philanthropy, sprang the gesture which converted his family residence into a convalescent home. Like many Australians, Dibbs was apparently shocked at the carnage taking place overseas during World War I. In April 1915, Australian troops first saw action when they landed at Gallipoli. Dibbs donated his home, Graythwaite, to the state as a convalescent home for soldiers returning from the front.
On 1 October 1915 the property was formally transferred by Dibbs to the Crown, in consideration of "my admiration of and sincere sympathy for those brave men who have so unselfishly given their services and their lives fighting for the Empire in the cause of Justice and liberty." as a 'Convalescent Home for our Sick and Wounded Soldiers and Sailors and when not required for that purpose as a Convalescent Home in perpetuity for distressed subjects of the British Empire regardless of Sect or Creed.' An official opening of Graythwaite was held on 1 March 1916. Dibbs presented the deeds of Graythwaite to the Premier of New South Wales who handed the property on to the NSW branch of the Red Cross. Eleanor MacKinnon who had been honorary secretary to the State' branch of the British Red Cross Society since 1914 became a committee member. Graythwaite was altered to fit it out as a convalescent home and was at first used for less severely ill convalescents. In 1918, the Red Cross decided that Graythwaite should be converted into a Hostel for long term cases of disablement. A change in emphasis required substantial changes to the building. Graythwaite was used as a convalescent home to 1977, when civil cases were referred by the Health Commission. The Red Cross then decided to relinquish the Hospital to enable it to be used as geriatric hospital by the Home of Peace Hospitals, under the supervision of the Health Commission. The buildings were officially handed over in December 1980.
Description
Site and landscape
The site is situated with dual frontages to Union and Edward Streets, generally rectangular in shape with a finger of land making an "L" to Union Street. The terrace embankments and driveway north from Union street are fairly densely vegetated with mature trees and shrubs including native and exotic species and flatter areas are grassed. Vehicular and pedestrian access is obtained from both Union and Edward Streets, however the preferred and most used is Edward Street directly behind the buildings to a small visitor car park. Entry from Union Street is through a recessed entrance gateway via a formalised driveway up the south-facing slope to the front of the historic building complex.To some extent 20th century building development near the historic building group has severed and/or changed the immediate landscaped gardens but remnants of the earlier plantings still remain close to the building. Views and vistas from the building group remain substantially unaltered from site development since the late 19th century. The semi detached villas and other subdivision developments to the south and west are screened by vegetation even through they remain close by in distance terms. The land slope and terraced vegetation to the south and west substantially screen nearby urban development from view. Views and vistas of suburban Sydney, the Harbour, Parramatta River and mountains to the west are visible above the tree line.
Up until its 2009 purchase of Graythwaite, The Shore School owned land immediately east and north of Graythwaite, and further west. This land all formed part of the Graythwaite estate under earlier owners, and comprises a range of buildings including houses built for Dibb's children, s, and later school development, and later. Immediately west of the property dives a railway line tunnel being the main northern line to Waverton/Hornsby. This runs directly west/east under the property.
The terracing on the property is thought to have been made initially for grape/vine planting, although this was abandoned at some point as unsuccessful, much of the terraces facing south, an orientation not suited to ripening fruit. Three or four major terraces face south, and an unknown number to the west of the site, which is steeper. Ground levels appear to have been modified in terms of slope, as well as terracing. Much deliberate and accidental tree planting has followed on these terraces, making the site rather secluded now, with the exception of long views from the main house south/south-sou-east to the city/Pyrmont, and west/west-south-west to Balmain/Leichhardt and the river.
Mature specimen trees remaining include perimeter plantings of Moreton Bay figs lining boundaries to adjacent housing on Union Street and Bank Street. These are at least 100 years old, some of them magnificent specimens, others planted closely.
Mature tree specimens across the site comprise mainly figs being a large number of Moreton Bay figs, also Port Jackson figs, giant bamboo to the west of the main house, and to the south-east of the main building group, firewheel tree, pepperberry tree, Cook's pine - a very tall specimen visible across on this ridge, Monterey pine, four Florida palms and Norfolk Island hibiscus line a carriage loop immediately south of the main house, and large numbers of white/grey poplar, Populus alba, some of which are suckers of older trees/regrowth clumps, spreading. Recent plantings of Populus x simonii have been put in east of the drive to replace rust-affected Lombardy poplars.
A carriage driveway from Union Street is lined on the west with brush box and on the east by camphor laurels, which appear to be at least pre 1950s, possibly 1930s. A pepper berry / white walnut tree is east of the drive towards the top, near the house. This is a very rare rainforest species, native to northern NSW rainforests and once native to the Illawarra and only one other specimen of it is known in Sydney, in Prince Alfred Park. Both may owe their presence to associations with colonial botanists James Backhouse and Allan Cunnungham, and then-director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Charles Moore, who did much to promote the planting of NSW and Queensland rainforest tree species.
A number of fruit trees remain or have been planted in the last 10–20 years in some cases on the banks immediately west and south of the main house. These may reflect replanting of earlier orchard areas. These include citrus, fig, loquat, pomegranate, carob, peach, banana, a quince tree, pawpaw, white mulberry etc.
;Weed species/naturalising plants
A number of "weedy" species trees, sh, although volunteers are clearing the worst of these and replanting locally native and NSW rainforest species to replace them. "Weeds" may of course represent earlier deliberate plantings, which have reproduced themselves on site, or wild seedlings introduced by visiting birds dropping seeds or regenerating naturally with relatively little disturbance/changing light conditions as mature trees fall or are removed. Species include white poplars, long leaved privet, small leaved privet, nettle tree, camphor laurels, sweet pittosporum , brush box, night cestrum, coral tree, smooth leaved rambutan/native quince, Alectryon species, bleedling heart tree, African olive, lantana, much of which has been removed since 2000 by volunteers, asthma plant, Madiera vine, butterfly bush, fennel, moth plant.