Early Residents - James Hunter Lawson (1836-1926)

Braemar

James Lawson was born in the Scottish seaport town of Greenock on 22 April 1836. Little is known of his childhood and youth, though by the time he immigrated to Australia at the age of nineteen he had acquired the trade of cabinet-maker. He arrived in Sydney in 1855.

Two years later, on 27 November 1857, Lawson married Emma Glen in St Andrews Cathedral. The following year they had a baby daughter, also named Emma. That same year he successfully applied for a hotel licence and became the licensee of the Royal Oak Hotel at Pyrmont. By 1865 the family had grown by three more children and Lawson had re-entered the furniture trade, establishing a furniture warehouse in the centre of Sydney in partnership with another businessman.

This business expanded rapidly over the next two decades and a large factory at Newtown was added to the enterprise. Lawson was able to bring his sons into the firm when they reached maturity and in the 1884 Sands Directory the business was listed as ‘Lawson, James & Sons, Cabinet-Makers, Art Furniture Manufacturers and Carpet Warehousemen’. The eldest son James Robert, however, left in the mid-1880s and established his own business, the auctioneering firm that still bears his name.

With his increasing prosperity James Hunter, like many other Sydney businessmen at the time, decided eventually to buy land in the Blue Mountains and build a country residence. At the end of the 1880s he purchased 60 acres at Springwood, with a frontage along the Western Road (now Macquarie Road), extending east from and including the Springwood Hotel built by Frank Raymond in 1877. He completely rebuilt the old hotel and opened it in January 1891 as The Oriental.

In the orchard adjoining the hotel Lawson next began construction of a cottage that was completed in 1892 and became known as Braemar. The Lawson’s appear to have occupied Braemar for no more than a couple of years, moving sometime in the mid-1890s into another home they had built next door.

This home, Glen Lawson, became James and Emma’s permanent residence for the rest of their lives. James Hunter built extensively in Springwood and settled a large extended family around him and his wife. On the eve of a trip to Europe in May 1900, he was praised in the press for contributing to the progress of the town ‘by erecting substantial buildings that would be a credit to any district’.

The Lawson’s were active in the Presbyterian Church (some services were held on the veranda of Braemar before the Frazer Memorial Church was opened) and in the movement to establish a School of Arts in Springwood.  In 1926, following a period of gradually declining health, James Hunter died on Friday 23 April. He was 90 years old. Within 24 hours his widow, Emma, who had appeared to be in fair health, had also passed away. The couple were buried together in Rookwood Cemetery.

John Low
Taken from: The Making of a Mountain Community, A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District 

Braemar c1990s

Cottages - Cloyne Lodge/Phoenix Lodge/Coomassie House & Knock-y-Theina

Phoenix Lodge taken from what is now Coomassie Avenue.
Members of the Chapman family seated on the verandah.
 Statues in the right of the photograph were moved to
the smaller cottage & only recently re-discovered.

Originally built as gardeners cottage and known as
Phoenix LOodge & Knock-y-Theina

Cloyne Lodge, situated in Grose Road Faulconbridge, burnt down in 1884.  The house was built on a portion of the land owned by city Alderman, Michael Nason Chapman, sometime prior to 1884.  The house was re-built by Chapman and renamed Phoenix Lodge for the insurance company that honoured the fire damage claim. Some years later the house was given the name Coomassie House while the name Phoenix Lodge was attached to the small cottage – built originally for the gardener – diagonally across the road.  The smaller cottage had been known as Knock-y-Theina.

Michael Nason Chapman’s grandson – of the same name – moved into the smaller cottage following financial difficulties.  Both cottages, built of local sandstone, are still in existence. 
Pamela Smith  

 

Cottages - Chatsworth

Chatsworth.  Seated on verandah are Mr & Mrs J.D. Ewens,
John Noake, Ruth Conway, Miss Humphries, Henry John Noble
& wife, Reg Noble, Harold Noble, Ruth Waterhouse (nee Noble)
daughter of Harold Noble, granddaughter of Henry John Noble,
great grand-daughter of John Daniel Ewens. 

The cottage known as Chatsworth was built by John Daniel Ewens c1898/99.  The residence was located on the main Western Highway just west of Springwood in that area of land now occupied by Buttenshaw Park.  The photograph illustrates that it was a substantial home with wide front and side verandahs.  Unfortunately, the house burnt down in 1908.

Not a great deal is known about the origins of John Daniel Ewens, however, a birth which appeared in the registers of St Martins in the Field Middlesex England in 1838 for John Daniel Ewens, may have referred to this gentleman.[1]  In 1871, when Ewens was fined for non-attendance of jury duty, his occupation was listed as writing clerk.[2]  In 1874 he was elected as auditor for Petersham borough and eleven years later, he was elected at auditor for Ashfield.[3]  Ewens was the assistant Council clerk for Newtown for a period of two years until resigning in 1876.[4]  During this time his occupation was variously listed as accountant and boot manufacturer.

He is known to have been involved with several other gentlemen in the Esperance Gold Mining Company which was wound up in 1875.[5]  In 1884, he appeared before Hon. James Martin Justice of the Supreme Court and T.W. Garrett (LS).  He and Alfred Tompsitt (Ewens & Tompsitt boot importers) were appealing for the proceeds of a deceased estate for monies owing to their company.[6] 

In 1886 the Rev. J.C. Corlette assisted by Rev Canon Kemmis vicar of St Mark’s Church Darling Point officiated at the marriage of Henry John Noble of Sydney to Ruth Eunice second daughter of Mr and Mrs John Daniel Ewens of Montrose Ashfield.[7]  Noble was the elder brother of Montague Alfred Noble (1873-1940) who had a brilliant cricketing career.  His nick-name was Mary Ann and he captained Australia in 15 test matches. 

The Ewens family were still in possession of Chatsworth until 1905 when a Mrs Wheeler took over the rental of the property to run as a boarding house. It would seem that Mrs. Wheeler may have purchased the property from Ewens in 1906.  Unfortunately, a house fire destroyed the residence in less than two hours, in 1908, despite the best efforts of local residents.  A local newspaper report at the time stated that the stone walls were all that was left of Chatsworth.[8]

A 1907 tourist guide suggested that the establishment of Mrs. Maude Wheeler never failed to attract attention nestling, as it did, in a cluster of old trees and neatly kept gardens.  Tennis courts, a large playground, a croquet lawn and orchards completed the pleasant ‘home-like picture.’  Chatsworth, the guide stated, served an excellent cuisine, and its airy bedrooms added to the other appointments which were all first-class.  In a short time Mrs. Wheeler had gained the reputation of being a most cheerful and obliging hostess.[9]

Fortunately the house was insured with Australian Mutual Fire Society for about £1100.[10] 

Pamela Smith 

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[1] Ancestry.com, Birth records.

[2] Empire, 20.12.1871, p. 2.

[3] Sydney Morning Herald 9.2.1874 & 7.2.1885.

[4] Newtown Project, http://www.sydneyarchives.info, Mr. John Daniel Ewens, accessed June 2011.

[5] Sydney Morning Herald, 21.8.1875, p. 10.

[6] Ibid, 28.11.1884, p. 2.

[7] Ibid, 17.7.1886, p. 1.

[8] Nepean Times, 18.1.1908.

[9] BMCC vertical files.

[10] Nepean Times, 18.1.1908.

See also The Making of a Mountain Community, A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District

Cottages - Banool

The stone cottage currently named Banool that still stands in Martin Place Linden was built by E.W. Cansdell - a storekeeper - of Nimmitabel.  It was built on the foundations of the intended, but never finished, ‘mansion’ started by Sir James Martin.  Part of the foundations is thought to have gone into the erection of the later building.  It is located on part of the 28 acres on land that Cansdell and Austin Chapman jointly owned and sub-divided to become the Blue Mountains Estate.

On sub-division plans the house, thought to have been built c1908, was referred to as the Bungalow.  In 1914, the home is thought to have been purchased by J.J. Anderson.  Subsequent owners were: R. Southouse 1920s, Frederick Marks 1922-1943, and Mr. McIlwraith 1943-1983.  It was one these subsequent owners who altered the name to Banool.

In 1983, the 41 square residence located on 0.6 hectares of land sold at auction for $213,000.
Pamela Smith

Cottages - Alphington

Alphington was built as a week-end retreat by Sir Alfred Stephens c1877.  However, the house was moved to a site on the Great Western Highway (opposite the entrance to Grose Road) and re-named Danville.

Cottages - Aldgate House

The weatherboard dwelling began life as Egroeg and later became Rothesay Farm before the name was changed to Aldgate House.   The cottage, which still stands in Macquarie Road, was built in the 1930s to a Varney Parkes (son of Sir Henry) design. 

Originally, the land upon which it stands formed part of the Fels property before it was sub-divided by Dora Fels in the 1920s.  Albert Thompson, land developer, purchased the portion where Aldgate house now stands but by the 1930s David and Florence Drake were the owners.  The Drake family built Egroeg (George backwards) which is thought to have been named for their son. 
Drake only owned the property for a couple of years because Richard Bowles was the owner by1933.  Bowles altered the name of the home to Rothesay Farm, which perhaps better reflected its use as a farm style guesthouse.  The situation remained unaltered until 1942, when the residence became a holiday home for children from the far west.

Its use changed again in 1989, when it was opened as an art/craft gallery by Barbara Ryder and Anne Marvell. The name was altered by the new proprietors to Aldgate House.  Aldgate is thought to have been their previous home in South Australia. 

Pamela Smith

Ref: Meryl Lees & research material of author

       Photograph by courtesy of BMCC Image library, photographer Murray Views, Gympie Qld.  

Cottages - "Aberfeldy"

Aberfeldy is said to mean ‘over the fields’ in the Scottish language however a search of The Dictionary of the Scots language failed to corroborate that assumption. 

Given that the cottage was built by Henry Charles Lennox Anderson c1890, it is much more likely that the origin came from the small market town of the same name located in the Highlands of Scotland.  Anderson was said to have been granted the 50 acre property - located in the vicinity of present-day Whitecross Road Winmalee - for services rendered in the Sudan War.  That must be taken at face value however because the entry for him in the Australian Dictionary of Biography does not mention any war service.

In 1906 Aberfeldy was rented by a Mr. Cook who is thought to have been the post-man.  Henry Goddard purchased the cottage in 1911.  The Goddard family took over the postal duties, and by 1925/26 Cecil Goddard is listed as the owner of the cottage on the electoral rolls for the district.

Aberfeldy remained in the ownership of the Goddard family until after World War Two.

Ref:

Springwood Historical Society Bulletin Newsletter No. 1. 
See post on Henry Charles Lennox Anderson