By Cathy Jones
Early land owners of lots from the Redmire Estate were John and Donald Vernon. Donald Vernon was traffic manager of NSW Railways and built the home ‘Parkstone’ (which has been demolished but faced Margaret Street). John Vernon, the NSW Auditor General, built ‘Springfield’ (which has been demolished and faced Redmyre Road). The Vernon’s subdivided their land c.1880 as the ‘Mount Vernon Estate’, which created Vernon Street, Brunswick Street (then called Redmyre St) and lots on Redmyre Road and Homebush Rd. All properties in Vernon Street are built on the Mount Vernon Estate.
‘St Vigeans’ was built c.1897 by builder John Lyon Gardiner, who initially named the house ‘Yabalom’. Gardiner designed and built many Federation style homes in Churchill Avenue and Redmyre Road. Ownership was then transferred to jeweller John Percy Hardy, of Hardy Bros, a prominent Sydney firm. The Hardy family were prominent in Strathfield history. His father, John Hardy, co-founded the firm and was a former resident of the house ‘Strathfield’, the house which the suburb and local government area was named.
From 1912, the house was owned by James Carrie of ‘independent means’. Carrie rented this house on occasion to Charles Isherwood, a merchant, who later became the owner. Between the 1940s and 1960s, St Vigeans was owned by the Clarke family.
References
Department of Valuer-General, Valuation Lists, Municipality of Strathfield
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory 1884-1932
Land Title Searches
Strathfield Council Valuation Lists 1900-01, 1906-07, 1917
Wise’s Post Office Suburban Directory 1936.
Strathfield Heritage 