Boronia 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 residence located at 624-632 Military 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 ...

in the

Mosman Council Mosman Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area on the North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Mayor of Mosman Council is Councillor, Cr. Carolyn Corrigan, a representative of ...

local government area of

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 ...

, Australia. It was designed by Sheerin & Hennessy (1885) and Clive Lucas & Partners (1985 restoration), and built during 1885. The property is owned by Mosman Council. The property is also called ''Boronia''. 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

Boronia is one of two almost identical neighbouring freestanding houses built in 1885 by two Newtown carriage builders, James and John Kearey, as residences for themselves with a common garden and entrance. The other residence was ''Telopea'', at 89B Cowles Road, which is now altered and built out by later development including a service station. Both houses are attributed to the well-known and prolific

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 ...

architectural firm of Sheerin & Hennessy. The 1890s depression hit the Kearey business so badly that all their assets had to be sold including "Boronia". The house faces south, addressing Military Road, from which it is set well back in an open garden behind a stone fence capped with iron cresting. A substantial two-storey wing was added at the north-east corner, probably in the late 1890s and soon afterwards a glazed bay with Art Nouveau detailing was added to the drawing room in this wing. The building remained virtually unaltered until it was acquired by Mosman Council in 1952, at which time it was considerably modified for occupation by the Mosman Municipal Library. Between 1978 and 1985 the building was used as offices and further altered. During 1985 Boronia was restored, reconstructed and adapted for use as a restaurant and function centre.

James and Ellen Kearey

The brothers James and John Kearey built Boronia in 1885. It was part of an estate which contained two identical houses called Boronia and Telopea and a common garden. James occupied Boronia and John lived in Telopea. James Kearey was born in 1842 in

. His parents were John and Mary Ann Kearey who had immigrated from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In about 1840 his father had established a coachbuilding business in Sydney and the firm had become very successful. His mother Mary Ann died in 1849 when he was only seven years old. His father remarried Catherine Fraser in 1851 and James and his elder brother John were brought up by their stepmother. In 1872 his father died and John seems to have taken over the management of the

coachbuilding A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

firm. However, in 1877 the brothers together constructed a building in

Pitt Street Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sec ...

which featured in an 1878 edition of the ''Australian Town and Country Journal''. The new business was called Kearey Brothers and for the next two decades the firm flourished. The brothers were credited with inventing a new type of carriage which was described in the newspaper ''

The Sydney Mail ''The Sydney Mail'' was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. It was the weekly edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' newspaper and ran from 1860 to 1938. History ''The Sydney Mail'' was first published on 17 July 1860 by Joh ...

''. In 1871 James married Honora Murphy and the couple had three children. Honora died in 1879 and soon after James married Ellen Doherty. James and Ellen had eight children, five of whom were born at Mosman. In 1885 John and James built two adjoining villa houses in

which they called Boronia and Telopea. James and his wife Ellen lived in Boronia and John and his wife Lucy lived in Telopea. The house has been described as it was when the Kearey brothers lived there in the following terms. :''"Originally there was a row of large camphor laurels just inside the front fence and round flowerbeds were cut into the lawn to contain various species of plants.'' :''The gardens originally included a vegetable and flower garden, an orchid and shrubberies and fern house. Several gardeners were employed to keep the grounds in order and to tend the grass tennis court"''. In 1891 John's wife Lucy died and three years later in 1894 John also died. James and Ellen continued to live at Boronia for two more years. However, in 1896 both houses were put on the market. The advertisement for their sale is shown on the right. Boronia was bought by George Willis Godwin and the Godwin family lived there for the next 50 years.

The Godwin Family

George Willis Godwin was born in 1856 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and migrated to Australia at the age of 23 in 1879. In 1896 when he was 40 years old he married Olive Mildred Simpson who was 18 years his junior. He bought Boronia in the same year he was married and he and Olive lived there for the rest of their lives. The couple had three children John Willis Godwin, Ena Godwin and Noell Godwin. George was a money broker and had a flourishing business in

Castlereagh Street Castlereagh Street is a major street located in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs in a north-to-south, in a one way direction only. Description Castlereagh Street's northern terminus is at the ...

in Sydney. After he retired he remained at Boronia and died in 1940 at the age of 84. He left his estate to his son John, but his wife Olive continued to live at Boronia until her death in 1951. One of the Godwin's granddaughters, daughter of John Willis Godwin, Patricia Judy Godwin, gave an account of her memories of Boronia when she went to visit Olive with her mother. She said: After Olive died in 1951 her son John sold Boronia in the following year to Mosman Council. The Council still owns the house. Since 1952 they have used the premises as a library, an office and a restaurant.

Description

Property/Garden

The house is set in a formal Victorian garden setting, with a circular carriage drive or loop immediately south of the main front door, large lawn areas and trees and shrubs set off to both sides and the rear. Large old tree specimens of evergreen magnolia (M.grandiflora), camphor laurel (''

Cinnamomum camphora ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree that is commonly known under the names camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel. Description ''Camphora officinarum'' is native to China south of the Yangtze River, Taiwan, southern ...

'') flank it to the southeast, and a pair of symmetrically placed lemon scented gums (''

Corymbia maculata ''Corymbia maculata'', commonly known as spotted gum, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has smooth, mottled bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of three, whit ...

'') frame the house's front gates to Military Road.Read, S., pers.comm., September 2006.

House

The house is completed in the Victorian Filigree style. Boronia is a two storeyed brick house with walls stuccoed and lined externally to simulate

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

. Its main roof is hipped and slated and the

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 roof is

corrugated metal Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a bu ...

painted in wide stripes. The double storey verandah is an ensemble of cast iron

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

and

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

s, emphasised at the centre by a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

. The iron balustrading pattern was registered as NSW design No. 90 in 1881 by Fletcher, Bennett and Frew, Sydney Ironfounders. The front boundary is marked by an unusual assemblage of stone fence, cast iron fencing and gates. Some original elements survive internally.

Condition

As at 6 September 2006, the building and its setting are in excellent condition.

Modifications and dates

*1920s: front stone wall moved back (north) due to road widening works. *Sympathetic minor alterations.

Heritage listing

As at 8 September 2006, Boronia was an excellent example of a substantial villa in the Victorian Filigree style on a site of ample frontage retaining much of its 19th century formal Victorian garden setting to the road. The handsome symmetry of the house is complemented by the open gardens and the stone and iron palisade front fence. The building and its setting are in excellent condition. Boronia was listed on the

on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. This item is historically rare regionally. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales. This item is socially representative locally.

References

Bibliography

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Attribution

External links

*{{URL, http://www.mosmancatering.com New South Wales State Heritage Register Houses in Mosman, New South Wales Restaurants in Sydney Event venues in New South Wales Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register 1885 establishments in Australia Houses completed in 1885 Victorian architecture in Sydney