By Cathy Jones
‘Luleo’, corner Albyn Rd and The Boulevarde Strathfield, was built in 1911 to a design by architect George Sydney Jones for Stuart Ritchie, of Ritchie Bros, rolling stock contractors of Auburn. Jones, grew up at ‘Llandilo’, the home of his father Dr Phillip Sydney Jones (now owned by Trinity Grammar). The imposing ‘Luleo’ stands on the grounds of the former Thompson estate ‘Malvern’, that was located next to ‘Llandilo’ on The Boulevarde. The Thompsons were relatives of the architect George Sydney Jones.
‘Luleo’ added to the number of Jones designed homes located in the vicinity of ‘Luleo’ in Albyn Rd including ‘Darenth’ (34 Albyn Rd), ‘Bickley’ and ‘Treaghre’ (demolished). However, ‘Luleo’ is a significant departure from Jones’ earlier Strathfield designs as this house was multi-storey, incorporated flat roof elements and rendered finishes.
Strathfield Heritage 
Dear Cathy,
You have written another article on ‘Luleo’ at https://strathfieldheritage.com/streetnames/the-boulevarde-strathfield-2/luleo-105-the-boulevarde-strathfield/ . In that article you mentioned the use by of the house by the Maronite rite of the Catholic Church.
According to the Maronite website, subheading “Beit Maroun”, the ‘Luleo’ house was purchased by the Maronites in 1984. They attribute the design of the house to Walter Burley Griffin (‘WBG’) rather than George Sydney Jones (‘GSJ’), source https://www.maronite.org.au/index.php?Itemid=789. ‘WBG’ not only designed the outlay of Canberra, but also designed private homes and public buildings such as cinemas, university residential colleges and incinerators.
However, since discussion on who built ‘Luleo’ is not about faith and morals of the Catholic faith, I tend to believe that GSJ is likely to have designed the house in 1911 rather than ‘WBG’ since ‘WBG’ arrived in Australia from the US in 1913, which was after the design and building of ‘Luleo’.
Thank you,
Anthony of thinking Belfield
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Anthony, the house is definitely George Sydney Jones and I can verify this from publications and records. I don’t know where they got Burley Griffin from. I have never found any WGB architecture in Strathfield district to date. But who knows more info may appear on future. Cathy
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