by Cathy Jones 2025
‘Lynn’, 141 Albert Road Strathfield is an Interwar Californian Bungalow. It is located on the 1841 Joseph Hyde Potts grant and was built in 1922. The house first appears in 1923 Sands Directory for George Cowdery and was named ‘Lynn’. This house was originally numbered 101 Albert Road and was renumbered 141 Albert Road Strathfield in 1947.
The land containing this property is part of the original 1841 grant to Joseph Hyde Potts. A portion of the Potts land was transferred to George Todman and William Von Der Heyde in 1885, and by 1899 was transferred to John Hinchcliff. A transmission application was made by Hinchcliff’s estate in 1902 and the vacant land transferred to Mrs Nelly Evers in March 1912. In 1915, land fronting parts of Albert Road, Dickson Street and Merley Road was owned by Charles William Counsell of Summer Hill, contractor. There appears to be an arrangement between Counsell, the land owner and Richard Fauxton Curgenven, a builder, to subdivide the land into 23 Lots and build a number of new houses in Albert Road, Dickson Street and Merley Road.
In March 1920 land transferred to Richard Fauxton Curgenven from Charles Counsell. Curgenven lodged an application to Strathfield Council build a brick cottage with a tiled roof of more than 5 rooms in October 1920. The estimated value of the construction was £1000. Curgenven owned the land for five years and after the house was built in 1921-1922, it was known as ‘Lynn’ and was leased to George Cowdery from 1922-1925.
In September 1925, the property transferred to Russell Hepburn Walters, who owned it until January 1927, when ownership transferred to Thomas Ellington Howard (1888-1967).
Howard, a golf professional, was the owner of ‘Lynn’ with his wife Nell (née Riley) until 1941. Howard was the winner of the Australian Open 1923 and many other major tournaments. He was a major Australian sporting celebrity of his day and worked as a golf professional at Concord Golf Club from 1922 to 1934. In 1926, two newspapers the Sydney Sun and Melbourne Herald opened a fund to send him to the British Open to compete. His last major championship win occurred in 1931 at the New South Wales Professional Championship. He later moved to Perth and became the golf pro at Royal Fremantle, where a memorial was erected after his death in 1967.
In February 1941, ownership transferred to Mrs Gertrude Bow and in January 1948 to Annie Wilson of Strathfield. In 1964 the property transferred to Selwyn George Trevellyn Neale, retired estate agent and Hillary Clifton, solicitor as joint tenants.
Reference
Derriman, Phillip (1999), ‘The Legacy of Tommy Howard’, Concord Golf Club.
NSW Lands Registry
Sands Sydney Directory
Strathfield Council Building Register
