By Cathy Jones 2024
‘Moolah’ 87 The Boulevarde Strathfield is situated on the western side of The Boulevarde on the northern corner of Torrington Road. The house was built in 1912, likely originally a single storey Federation style house, for its owner Ernest Clement Broughton, a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly and former Mayor of Ashfield. Later a second storey was added to the house.
87 The Boulevarde Strathfield is located on the 1810 James Wilshire Crown Land grant. This land was subdivided into residential lots in 1867 by solicitor William Whaley Billyard and offered for sale as the Redmire Estate. By 1880, Lot 37 was owned by Davidson Nichol and it changed ownership several times before being sold to Amelia Lockyer Broughton, wife of Ernest Clement Vernon Broughton of Sydney in November 1911.
An application to build a brick house was approved by Strathfield Council in July 1911 for owner E C Broughton. The builder was W Rutherford and the building had an estimated value of £1200, a considerable sum in this period to build a new house.
The house was likely completed by 1912. It was originally numbered 69 The Boulevarde was later renumbered 87 The Boulevarde.
The house first appeared in the 1913 Sands Sydney Directory named ‘Delves’ with E C V Broughton (JP for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia) as the occupant. Broughton was a member of the Progressive Party and later the Liberal Reform Party. He was elected Mayor of Ashfield in 1901 and 1902.
He represented the electoral district of Sydney-King in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 3 July 1901 to 16 July 1904. He then represented electoral district of King from 6 August 1904 to 19 August 1907 and again from 10 September 1907 to 14 September 1910.
Broughton lived at ‘Delves’ until his death in 1917. His widow Amelia, lived at ‘Delves’ until 1919, when ownership of the property transferred to Frederick Baldick (1876-1961), a broker.
Fred and Lavinia Hazel Baldick (née Bennett) (1884-1951) moved to Strathfield from a house they had built at Haberfield. They had three children. On arrival in Strathfield the Baldick family changed the name of the house to ‘Moolah’ after a rural property in Ivanhoe New South Wales that Mrs Baldick’s family had one owned.
Their daughter Kathleen (1909-1963) attended Meriden Church of England School for Girls in Redmyre Road. Their sons, Allen and Kenric, attended Strathfield Grammar School in Llandilo Avenue. Kathleen Baldick was later known as the esteemed garden designer Kath Carr. Holly Kerr Forsyth in her book Remembered Gardens (2006) says “Carr lived in a large single story Federation-era home constructed of brick with wooden fretwork on sandstone foundations. It was set in three blocks of land, with a tennis court and gardens by tended by a full-time gardener.”
When the Baldick family sold ‘Moolah’ in 1937 they moved to Killara. Hazel died in that suburb in 1951 and her husband Fred died in Lindfield in 1961. Kathleen Baldick married Robert (Bob) Carr a farmer from western New South Wales at St Philip’s Anglican Church, Church Hill, Sydney in 1937. She died in Sydney on 17 September 1999.
In March 1937, the property transferred to Amy Hordern (née Wright) (1866-1939) the widow of Percy Grose Hordern MLC (1863-1926). Hordern was the son of Edward Hordern, brother of the original Anthony Hordern (of Anthony Hordern retail emporium). He was educated at Newington College and assisted in the management of the family business. At the age of 21 he married Annie Wright and the couple had ten children – five sons and five daughters.
In August 1889 he began as a sole trader in a new building in George Street, which was successful, and in 1902 retired from this business. Hordern’s main interest was politics and the Australian Labor Party. He served as an Alderman on Petersham Council from 1895 until 1917. He served as Mayor from 1897 until 1898, 1903 until 1905, 1908 until 1910.
In August 1921, he was appointed to the NSW Legislative Council Life Appointment under the Constitution Act by the NSW Storey Labor Government where he served until his death in 1926. As his obituary notes, “although politics were his dominating interest, he found time for several other activities. He was a prominent Freemason and an enthusiastic member of the Petersham Bowling Club.”
Following Mrs Hordern’s death in 1939, the property transferred by transmission in January 1940 to her daughters Mrs Doris Annie Bull of Burwood and Madge Amour Hordern of Strathfield as joint tenants. In March 1947, the property transferred to Joseph Bull, insurance inspector and his wife Doris as joint tenants. In February 1968, the property transferred solely to Joseph Bull as sole owner following the death of his wife.
In July 1970, the property was sold to N & J Schoenmaker. Additions were made to the house in 1971. In December 1976, the property was sold to Peter Manenti of Sylvania Waters, company director and his wife Antonella.
References
Broughton E C, NSW Parliament Members Biography, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/formermembers/Pages/former-member-details.aspx?pk=1148
DEATH OF MR. E. C. V. BROUGHTON. (1917, August 16). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 8. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15753325
Hordern, Percy Grose, NSW Parliament Members Biography, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/formermembers/Pages/former-member-details.aspx?pk=1132
NSW Land Registry Services
Obituary P G Hordern MLC (1926, April 2) Sydney Morning Herald, page 8
Sands Sydney Directory 1910-1932
Strathfield Council, Meeting Minutes, July 1911
