by Cathy Jones 2024
The land bounded by Ardittos Lane to the north, Elva Street to the east, Redmyre Road to the south and Homebush Road to the west was purchased by Robert Joshua King and Mary Ann Balmain, wife of surveyor and Strathfield Council Town Clerk John Hope Balmain, in 1903. Prior to this time, it was largely considered unusable due to the presence of a watercourse and creek (which is now a Sydney Water closed stormwater conduit). King and Balmain subdivided the two allotments into 66 feet wide blocks fronting Redmyre Road and The Avenue (later Churchill Avenue), a new street to link Elva Street and Homebush Road. The land was auctioned as the ‘King Estate’.
The land was gradually taken up with the last allotments sold in 1914. Many of the sales did not correspond with the original subdivisions, a number of purchasers preferring narrower frontages. A convenant was placed on most sales requiring ‘one main building only on the said land and such building shall be a double fronted…and be built of brick and/stone with roof of slates and/or tiles and shall not cost less than £300”.
21 to 67 Redmyre Road are built on the ‘King Estate’.
Lot 58 was purchased on 9 December 1909 from King & Balmain by builders Alfred Messervy jnr & Henry Messervy. The Messervy Brothers were well known local builders. Strathfield Council Valuation Records indicate that the house was built in 1910 evidenced by changes in improved capital value from £210 in 1909 to £750 in 1910. The Strathfield Council’s 1910 valuation notes that a house is under construction.
The house named ‘Goldwell’ first appears in the 1912 Sands Directory occupied by Norman Macey.
Ownership of the property transferred to Norman Browning Macey, a commercial traveller, in November 1910. Macey (d.1949) married Lillian Ruth Taylor in 1909 and the couple moved into the new house after their marriage. Macey owned this house until his death in 1949, however he appears to have rented the house from c1928. In the electoral rolls in the 1930s and 1940s, Norman and Ruth Macey are listed as living at 120 Homebush Road Strathfield.
In 1949, the property transferred to Margaret Sherman and in March 1950, it transferred ownership to Joseph Murphy, a public servant.
References
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages
NSW Electoral Rolls 1913, 1932, 1934, 1949
NSW Land Registry, Certificate of Title v.2033 f.168
Sands Sydney Directory – Municipality of Strathfield 1910-1932
Strathfield Council valuation lists 1909-1912
