For almost 15 years, a dedicated group of volunteers has gathered to sew, crochet, knit, embroider and stuff historically authentic soft furnishings for our houses. From magnificent colonial style buildings to iconic modern designed spaces, we have a venue ready for you. When important historic buildings were demolished in 20th-century Sydney, one way to remember them was by saving, perhaps for re-use, some of their more notable architectural features.
Ten fluted timber columns with Ionic capitals originally adorned the front verandah of Burdekin House in Macquarie Street, Sydney, built in for the wealthy merchant Thomas Burdekin β Two of these columns, somewhat battered, are currently on display at the Museums Discovery Centre in Castle Hill.
The odd and eventful story of these columns, and of other architectural remnant material exhibited in the same space, provides an insight into the changing fortunes of, and ideas about, our built environment in the 20th century. Praised as an example of fine colonial architecture, it appeared in earlyth-century guidebooks as one of the sights of Sydney. Materials from the Burdekin House demolition were soon advertised for sale, including marble mantels, a cedar staircase and extensive panelling, cedar casements and hardwood floorboards.
Good quality building materials from razed buildings had long been in demand for re-use in new constructions, especially when large estates were broken up. Sydneysiders queued up to secure a piece of history.
Burdekin descendants acquired the front door, fanlight and sidelights for Plumthorpe, near Barraba in northern NSW. Marble fireplaces, probably from the elaborate Louis XIV Revival drawing room, were added to a large house in Castle Hill; a Miss Kathleen Rutherford incorporated some of the cedar doors, bricks and timber panels into her new home at Palm Beach; and six of the ten timber verandah columns were acquired by well-known society figure Rose Du Boise to replace the cast-iron verandah columns on St Malo, her Hunters Hill house built around Re-use of architectural material could be a complicated process.
