Richmond Villa - Once at Macquarie Street
Now At Kent Street - Old Sydney
Tucked Behind Parliament House, Facing The Domain, Is The Prettiest Old House In The City - Richmond Villa.
Governor Macquarie gave an acre of Macquarie Street land to his Irish Lieutenant Governor, Marice O’Connor; who had married Governor Bligh‘s daughter.
At Verious times the site carried the Lighthorse Barricks which became an institution with the title of the Sydney female school of industry, the Presbyterian prefabricated iron church of Saint Stephen, and a cluster of houses – Richmond Terrace
O’Connell did not build on the land, and passed into other Hands & was subdivided.
In 1849 three of the lots sold to the colonial architect Mortimer Lewis, who boldly made a breach in the domain wall that sealed the property off from the park and started work on his Gable sandstone Gothic villa.
Note that the site could’ve been chosen for a man with a sociable nature, for the domain had by then changed its character of official wilderness.
This land, that Governor Philip dedicated to his government property, not to be alienated, it had for more than 50 years largely been a waste of scrub land, apart from the portion developed to be the botanical Gardens.
In the 1840s it was put in order.A road that became a carriage drive for Gentry was favourite for afternoon social & fashion parades.
But Mortimer Lewis hardly stayed long enough to enjoy it all. He sold the house within a year of moving in. Various owners held it until it was acquired, with other eastern side Macquarie Street sites, by the state in 1879.
It is since served as part of Parliament house now housing country party members. It Is Such A Shame that A “Publicly” Owned classic Georgian Gothic Revival Masterpiece Is Only Accessible To The Political Elite.
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