Interviewer: Noelene Pullen

Date of Interview: January 2010

Transcription: Glenys Murray, January 2010

Take a Virtual Tour

Restoration of Castle Hill House

So in 1993 on the 10th March Redeemer Baptist Church after successfully bidding for the property were the proud owners of the burnt out shell. We then as previously said spent ten years researching, restoring and provided one hundred and sixty thousand voluntary hours into the restoration of the building. The building was so successfully restored that it won two awards with the Master Builders Association (in 2003). The first award was for the best restoration in New South Wales and the second award was for the best use of timber.

It is important to remember that in the restoration of the building we used, all except in one room, recycled timber. The history of the timber itself is also rich. Garden Island Dockyards, Goulburn Wool Stores, Newcastle docks are just a few of the sources of where the timber for the restoration has come from. In 2003 Castle Hill House was fully completed and used for the intention it was bought for. That is vocational education.

Workers restoring Castle Hill House

The philosophy behind the restoration of Castle Hill House is consistent with the Conservation Management Plan. Conservation Management Plan required that the building be restored to the known date of circa 1880. This was when the wing at the end of the building which had been designed by the Blacket brothers, was constructed. Castle Hill House at that stage would have had a portion which was clearly Georgian, which was the front 1840 section and the rear section 1880. Since then there have been a number of other additions. Also included in this would have been the remodeling of the whole building in 1934. It was remodeled in a Mediterranean style. In the thirties Professor Leslie Wilkinson, who was the Dean of Architecture at the University of Sydney, had a philosophy that Sydney had a climate like the Mediterranean. So buildings were cropping up all over Sydney in a Mediterranean style. This style did not last too long. Whilst we might have a climate similar to a Mediterranean climate it also had a sub tropical element to it with large torrential rainfall. To have buildings with no eaves caused a lot of water damage. So in 1934 a large Mediterranean style verandah was put on the back to replace the rotted out timber verandah. Large arches were also introduced into the building. So by 1993 we had a large number of different styles that had been introduced into the building. Our philosophy was very simple. Whatever was Georgian was to remain Georgian. Whatever was Victorian was to remain Victorian. Anything else including any additions would be remodeled or reconstructed to respect the Georgian style of the original building.

The entrance to the cellar

This has meant that inside the Georgian portion of the building is modelled very simply. Doors, architraves, skirtings are all consistent with the Georgian profile as well as paint schemes. The Victorian section which has the more florid colours and more detail has been remodelled according to the Blacket drawings. Then any addition has been done respecting the original styles, but has been done with a new element to it, to provide it with a freshness. So the verandahs on the rear section whilst they are reflecting the Mediterranean style have window sash proportions that respect the Georgian proportions but are definitely not Georgian. The Church when it bought the building in 1993 was fortunate to have amongst its members, engineers, electricians, builders including master builders, surveyors, architects as well as managers that would be needed to be able to draw the building together. It was this relationship amongst the people that was also part of the success of the restoration. The fact, that if something was not right we had the willingness to pull it out and do it again. Doing this restoration without a contract allowed us a great freedom that you would not necessarily be afforded if it was a restoration that required a contractual arrangement with builders and other specialists. That was one of the key successes that allowed us to restore the building as accurately as possible. It was also the willingness of the suppliers who saw what we were doing. Their willingness to either assist us financially in what they supplied to us or in redoing something to make it right allowed the project to be as successful as it was.

A Tour of Castle Hill House:

The Maids' Room

We’re currently standing in the rear portion of Castle Hill House in the 1880’s extension. If you look at the cornices you’ll see the detail of the colour variations which is sympathetic with the Victorian styles. We also have ceiling roses that we have designed to allow the air conditioning to be part of the building as well, without taking away from the history of the building. The doors that are in this room were originally removed. It was the drawings from the Blacket’s drawings in the Mitchell Library that enabled us to fully restore this room back to what it was. In the 1880’s this was where the maids lived. It meant that they were adjacent to the bedrooms at the rear of the front of the house and gave them access to the young children that they would have been caring for.

A hand-painted ceiling rose, concealing the air conditioning vent

The Enclosed Verandah

We’re standing on the verandah in the 1880 portion of the building. This verandah was put on in 1882. It was originally a timber open verandah. In 1934 when Thelma Wild owned the building, she removed the timber verandah which had collapsed. It was rebuilt in a Mediterranean style. She had arches upstairs and downstairs and she had a brick balcony. This was then changed when the government used it for a boy’s home. They closed the upstairs arches into square, rectangular windows that were small. It was a very oppressive space and we wanted to return the building back to a light and airy internal space. Being on the north we wanted to reflect the 1939 design that had been introduced into the building. So we created the arches consistent with the 1934 section as well as allowing it to then reflect the Georgian element as well. Therefore it was able to tie in with the front section of the building but clearly not competing with it. The floor is timber recycled from Garden Island and the sashes and all the door and window hardware is consistent with the hardware that was discovered in the rear of the building which was the 1880 portion.

The Bedroom / Drawing Room

The room that we’re standing in is in the Georgian portion of the building. The colour scheme reflects the simple colour schemes of the Georgian period. The windows are nine sash windows. Nine pane and six pane windows and the thin sashes are all consistent with the period. The timber in the windows was originally Australian cedar and these two windows have been fully restored.

Dr Greenup's desk

The architraves and the window sill have had to be replaced. To be able to keep the building air conditioned, we have concealed the air conditioning in the cornices of the building. The air is supplied by the cornice being created into a duct. There is no clear visual dominant element of air conditioning in the space. When it came to restoring the building there was a very thin wall dividing this space into two. Originally this was two rooms but subsequently in the early 1900’s the wall had been replaced by another brick wall which was a brick on edge. This wall was floating and you could push it. We didn’t even need hammers to remove it. When we pulled the wall down and saw the space that was created we believed that it would increase the significance of the history of this area. Therefore we decided to not replace it.

The doors at the front of the building, the French doors, have all been carefully restored according to photos that have been taken of the building in the 1930’s. As well as the sale photos of 1913 and also the sketches that were done by Rose Thorne in 1873 and 1877. The skirtings and the cornices have all been reconstructed to express this period. All fireplaces are functional fireplaces. However after the fire in 1989 the original fireplaces were stolen. In some cases historic mantlepieces that have direct history back to Burdekin House on Macquarie Street were also stolen. We have replaced them with fire places that are consistent with the Victorian period. We have had a mantle piece that has been constructed according to the Georgian style. The flooring in this room is ironbark and the ironbark has come from the Goulburn Wool Stores. If you look at the doors you will see that the door knobs are mudstone. There are four panels on the doors. These are all traits consistent with the Georgian period. When you go into the Victorian part, all those elements change to reflect that as well. Another significant factor in this room is the original desk that belonged to Dr Richard Greenup is here as well. We have photos of Dr Richard Greenup sitting at his desk. We have also got this original piece of furniture which belonged to him when he was in the house. The light switches are introduced. They have been designed to be also phone, data and computer. They have also been done in a style that is heritage and does not detract from the space as well. All the lights including the lights in this room have been specially designed for this house. They were designed in Austria. They have been designed to be sympathetic to the building as well as being new technology.

Rose Thorne's sketch of Darcey Hey

The Bedroom

We are currently in the bedroom in the Georgian portion of the building upstairs. This room currently is painted pink. When we came to restore the building we did paint scrapes on all the walls. We were able to find the original colour for this room. The floor is ironbark and the fireplace is fully restored and operational. The furnishing in this room is a cotton madras lace. It is a simple curtain, two rectangles of lace, hand hemmed, with curtain hooks attached by hand. There is a separate calico lining, free running, and cotton tie backs and tassels. Double timber rods and fitting have been crafted by our builders. There are simple brass finials to finish the window. All of this is consistent with the period of the building.

The Verandah

We’re standing on the external verandah that was built in 1869 by James Houison. The specification for this verandah was located in the Mitchell Library in the Thorne collection. We have restored the building according to that specification. The handrail for this building has also been located in the rear of the building and was used in the top plate. We were able to get the profile of the hand rail from that top plate. The timber here is blackbutt five inches wide tongue and groove. We have also introduced the black grills to provide safety for the verandah, even though they were not originally part of the building. The oak tree that you see adjacent to the building was we believe the English oak brought out by Dr Richard Greenup in 1850 and planted here in 1853. The two bunya pines at the front of the building were planted in 1875.

Restoration in the Bachelors' Room

The Bachelors' Room

We’re in the 1880 section of the building upstairs in what was known as the bachelors' room. In this room is the only remaining window of the 1880 extension. The window has a porcelain sash lock and has brass sash lifts. It was these items of window hardware that allowed us to provide consistency for the rear of the building. The architrave and the sill were painted by our master craftsmen. They would have spent a week and a half stripping this building and removing all the original paint and restoring it.

The Dining Room

We’re standing in the circa 1840 portion of the building. This was originally the dining room. The windows here are all the original windows, they are Australian cedar. We have fully restored these windows and in the restoration of this room it was uncovered that sometime in the restoration of the building there were windows put in here in a different location. It is this that leads us to believe that the building could be as early as circa 1825. The wall on the eastern side was built in 1880 when the Blacket extensions and the remodeling of this room had occurred. That wall was put on six inches of black soil. The door into the hallway at the right was closed at the same time. This room was made into a dining room and the wall provided a pantry for the maids at the rear of this space. The ceiling joists and the cross braced framing are part of the original construction. The ceiling lining boards were found in the wall and we were able to reconstruct the ceiling to the same colour as the original. The walls here have also been underpinned and damp proofed courses have been introduced. The concrete floors have been removed and the under floor is fully ventilated.

The fireplace in the Dining Room

The steel beams in this room were introduced in the 1930’s and created point loads that the building, that had sun dried bricks, could not sustain. So we have been able to transfer those weights and been able to clad the steel beams with timber. We have mitered the corners of the joints so that they appear to be timber logs that are holding up the floor above. The steel also caused such problems with subsidence that it broke the hallway arch in half. After we were able to structurally modify the building all this has been rectified. When we began the restoration one of the documents that was referred to was a report done by the government by a gentleman who was in the department at that stage. He had faithfully gone through the building and recorded the profiles of all the doors, all the architraves and the ceilings in each of the rooms. When we came to do the restoration and reconstruction we were able to identify that these were consistent in the areas where there were still remnants. So we have used that document to be able to provide profiles for all the doors, architraves and skirtings in the restoration.

The Entrance Hallway

We’re standing in the stairway of the Georgian portion of the building. It was here where the vandals lit the fire and destroyed the original Australian cedar staircase. Prior to that staircase being introduced in the 1880's under the extensions of the Blacket brothers there was a very simple Georgian stair here. In the modifications that was replaced and the stair was designed so that you could walk out onto the verandah as well as internally into the dwelling. The newel post was designed by the Blacket brothers. All the detail to the staircase are recorded on the drawings. We have restored and reconstructed this stair exactly to the detail of that drawing. You will notice on the newel post the initials of G T which stands for the owner at the time George Thorne. Tradition has it that you can only put your initials on a newel post when you own your house. So we assume that he owned this house when the restoration was done.

The Wunderlich ceiling in the Kitchen

The Kitchen

This room is the kitchen in the new extension that was put on in the 1880’s. The kitchen replaced the original timber slabbed dwelling. The maids only had to travel across the courtyard to the dining room from here. The floor is Carrara marble with a tessellated tile border. These were used by Blacket in many of his signature buildings. They were often used in hallways and verandahs. The skirting was cement and carefully profiled, removed and remolded in four separate applications. The door hardware was selected as a result of the only two door handles found in the whole building. The ceiling originally had been a lathe and plaster ceiling. It was covered with a pressed metal Wunderlich sheet. The fire had burnt the timber roof causing severe exposure and rusting. By careful research in the Powerhouse Museum this pattern has been identified as number 151 from the Wunderlich catalogue. All patterns prior to number 800 have been used before the 1900’s. The timber border molds were also rotted and have been remolded. The 1880 extension had a slate damp proof course which moderated rising damp problems. The cornice molds were found as noggins in the roof structure above the toilets that had been added in the 1940’s. This mold was originally one piece and was remolded in two pieces in Australian cedar.

The Kitchen floor restoration