Alma House is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

former childcare centre, nursing school and offices and now residence located at 114 Belmont Road,

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, a suburb of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. The property is privately owned. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999.

History

''Alma'' was constructed for Frederick Smith, a wealthy resident in the mid-1890s. In later years Miss Hutchinson established a nursing school in the building which may have been the first school of its type in the municipality. It was a corporate headquartersLocal Environmental Plan, 2011 but sold in 2010 for 3.6 million and is now a contemporary family home for six. A 1914 newspaper article about Smith's estate, left through his will, noted its value was

A£ The pound (Sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol s ...

17,159, sworn in for probate. He appointed his sons Sidney, Arthur and Frederick and his daughter Frances executors and executrix and trustees of the estate. He bequeathed the furniture, ornaments, plate and effects at ''Alma'' to Frances, which furniture and effects were purchased with her own money. He gave his pony phaeton, harness and all other articles of a similar nature to Frances. The house occupied by his son Frederick in Chuter Street, North Sydney (now

McMahons Point McMahons Point is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. McMahons Point is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. ...

), testator left to Frederick on trust to receive the benefits, rents, etc., until his death, when it goes to his children. He left the poetry at the corner of Alexander and Atchinson Streets, North Sydney in trust to his son Francis, and the property in Glover Street in trust to his son Arthur for life, both on the same terms as that to Frederick. He left certain property at Careel Bay, Pittwater to his son-in-law Harold Trotman Howard, and the remainder of his Careel Bay property to all of testator's children as joint tenants. He left A£30 to the

North Shore Hospital North Shore Hospital is a large public hospital in Takapuna, New Zealand, serving the northern part of Auckland. Located on Shakespeare Road near Lake Pupuke, it is administered by the Waitemata District Health Board, which provides health servi ...

, an annuity of A£200 to his daughter Frances, one of A£150 to his friend Rosalie Grigg and one of A£50 to his daughter Isabella, now Isabella Reed. The residue of real and personal estate to be held in trust for the children after due provision for mortgages, etc. A

codicil Codicil may refer to: * Codicil (will), subsequent change or modification of terms made and appended to an existing trust or will and testament * A modification of terms made and appended to an existing constitution, treaty, or standard form c ...

to the will revoked the provision appointing trustees, executors and executrix and appointed in their place his son-in-law, Harold Trotman Howard, in conjunction with testator's son Arthur and daughter Frances. He further provided that in the event of Rosalie Grigg predeceasing his daughter Frances the annuity of A£150 should go to Frances, while that of A£50 payable to Isabella Reed is to go to the daughter May Howard, in the event of the annuitant predeceasing May Howard. ''The Sun'' (Sydney). 7 July 1914. p. 1, abridged.

Description

The garden is set in large grounds. The house is completed in the late

Victorian Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

style. Large two-storey face brick Victorian Italianate style residence with slate roof. The house features a two-storey window

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

with cement rendered mouldings and

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

. The entry

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

has a large arch and opens to the two-storey cast iron

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

h on the west. On the eastern side is a two-storey brick addition with a

flat roof A flat roof is a roof which is almost level in contrast to the many types of sloped roofs. The slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10°. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid c ...

. Details have been matched to the original building and the addition maintains a benign quality even though it is located in a prominent position. There is a further two-storey shingled, gabled addition on the north west.

Heritage listing

As at 2 December 2016, Alma is historically significant for its association with the establishment of substantial residences in Mosman in the 1880s and also with its use as an early nursing school. It is aesthetically significant as a good example of Italianate architecture with sympathetic additions, and is prominent in the streetscape. Alma House was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

References

Attribution

{{NSW-SHR-CC, name=Alma House, dno=5045034, id=00070, year=2018, accessdate=1 June 2018 New South Wales State Heritage Register Houses in Mosman, New South Wales Child care Office buildings in New South Wales Defunct schools in Sydney 1890s establishments in Australia Defunct hospitals in Sydney Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register Italianate architecture in Sydney Houses completed in the 19th century

History

Description

Heritage listing

See also

References

Further reading

Attribution