Hopewood House – 13–15 Thornton Street – Darling Point – NSW

Hopewood House – 13–15 Thornton Street – Darling Point – NSW

Art Nouveau / Federation grand house · Morrow & De Putron for Lebbeus Hordern · Demolished 1966 — Hopewood Gardens apartments; landscape remnants LEP-listed

Beside Retford Hall on Thornton Street, Lebbeus (“Billie”) Hordern’s great harbour house lasted barely two generations before strata-title Darling Point erased it — leaving a tower that kept the name and a scatter of gates, rotundas and palms.

At a glance

• Address / site: 13–15 Thornton Street, Darling Point NSW 2027 (also cited 13–17); Woollahra; adjoining historic Retford Hall grounds
• Traditional Custodians: Gadigal / Cadigal (DoS Darling Point)
• Client: Lebbeus (“Billie”) Hordern (1891–1928), Anthony Hordern family (Wikipedia Hordern family / DoS)
• Architects: Morrow & De Putron (Babworth SHR; Federation Home)
• Dates: design/build variously 1914 (Babworth SHR note), 1918 (DoS), or completed c.1924 (SMH 1949 sale copy)
• Scale (1949 sale copy): about 40 large rooms; 2½ acres; verandahs to harbour on three sides (SMH via Federation Home)
• Heritage (remnants): Woollahra LEP local items I185 (13–15 Thornton) and I186 (21 Thornton) — fences, gateposts, gates, balustrade, rotundas, significant palms/trees
• Fate: Sold out of Hordern hands (sale notices 1930 family histories; major press sale 1949 £46,000); finishing school / Rosary Villa 1950; wartime Services use; private hospital; demolished 1966; Hopewood Gardens apartment tower on site (DoS)

Site & setting

Yarranabbe / Darling Point western harbour slope above Rushcutters Bay — Gadigal Country; villa allotments from the 1830s Mitchell/Yaranabee subdivisions that also carried Retford Hall for Anthony Hordern II (DoS). Hopewood took a generous residual parcel beside Retford Hall with three-sided harbour verandahs (period press). Strata-title boom after the 1961 Conveyancing (Strata Titles) Act accelerated mansion clearances; DoS pairs Hopewood’s 1966 loss with Retford Hall’s demolition the same decade.

Timeline

• c.1914–24 – Morrow & De Putron design/build Hopewood for Lebbeus Hordern.
• 1928 – Lebbeus Hordern dies (family chronologies).
• c.1930 – Property leaves Hordern occupation (family summaries).
• 1930s – Cazneaux photographs interiors and grounds (Federation Home photo trail).
• Sep 1949 – SMH reports sale for £46,000; copy describes ~40 rooms, 2½ acres, built “in 1924” (Federation Home quotation).
• 16 Nov 1950 – SMH: Sisters of St Joseph of California convert house to finishing school / female accommodation as Rosary Villa (DoS n.70).
• WWII – Used as Services headquarters / accommodation (SMH colour via Federation Home; DoS lists Hopewood among Darling Point homes used for naval personnel).
• 1966 – House demolished; multi-storey Hopewood Gardens rises on the site (DoS).
• Today – Apartment estate; LEP-listed remnant fences, gates, rotundas and trees.

Architecture & interiors

Period descriptions stress wide verandahs to the harbour on three sides and “attractive architectural design” at very large domestic scale (SMH). Historians group it with Morrow & De Putron’s Hordern domestic work beside Babworth — Art Nouveau / early twentieth-century grand house language (Babworth SHR; DoS “Art Nouveau style”). Harold Cazneaux recorded perron, lobby, interiors and grounds in the 1930s (Federation Home). Period photographs and press descriptions are the safest guide to the interiors; treat “about 40 large rooms” as the sourced scale rather than a measured survey.

People & anecdotes

Lebbeus Hordern — younger Hordern generation; also associated with a separate Hopewood at Bowral and pastoral stations (family summaries — keep Bowral distinct). Brother Sir Samuel Hordern’s Babworth (same architects) still stands uphill. The house’s afterlife — finishing school, wartime billet, hospital, then total clearance — is a compressed parable of Darling Point’s twentieth century.

Gallery notes

1. Cazneaux exteriors / perron / grounds, 1930s (NLA / SLNSW rights)

2. Cazneaux interiors / lobby

3. SMH sale / Rosary Villa press

4. Demolition-era or early Hopewood Gardens construction (if found)

5. Surviving LEP gates, rotundas, palms on Thornton Street today

What stands today

The mansion is gone (1966). Hopewood Gardens apartments occupy the house site; remnant landscape and garden structures are locally listed — view from Thornton Street only; private grounds. Pair with Retford Hall (demolished Hordern neighbour), Babworth (standing Morrow & De Putron sibling), Greenoaks, Lindesay and Swifts.

Sources & further reading

• Dictionary of Sydney — Darling Point (Patricia Jacobsen, 2016), Hopewood demolition note and n.70 (SMH 16 Nov 1950)
• NSW SHR — Babworth House (#01300) — Morrow & De Putron / Lebbeus Hopewood cross-reference
• Woollahra LEP 2014 Schedule 5 — remnant Hopewood items I185 / I186 (13–15 and 21 Thornton Street)
• Federation Home — Morrow and De Putron (SMH 30 Sep 1949 and 16 Nov 1950 quotations; Cazneaux gallery)
• Trove — search Hopewood Darling Point; Rosary Villa Thornton; Lebbeus Hordern
• Wikipedia — Hordern family

Related on this blog

• Retford Hall – Darling Point
• Babworth House – Darling Point
• Greenoaks – Darling Point
• Lindesay – Darling Point