Aberglasslyn House
Aberglasslyn House is a heritage-listed residence and former boarding school at Aberglasslyn Road, Aberglasslyn, City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Verge and built from 1840 to 1842. It is also known as Aberglasslyn and Aberglasslyn Homestead. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. History On 3 July 1823 Henry D. Owens received a crown grant of 1100 acres in the Parish of Gosford. In 1824 Owen built a cedar and bluegum cottage on the property. In 1828 the estate and uncompleted house nearly 90 feet long was sold to Sir John Jameison. During the next eight years the estate was let to John Dow and during his occupation the name "Aberglasslyn" appeared. The property was also let to George Fletcher. In 1835 George Hobler leased Aberglasslyn for a year from Sir John Jameison with an option to purchase. In July 1836 the land was purchased by George Hobler for 5,000 pounds. The same year the architect Henry Robertson advertised for tenders for building a house on the estate. Construction did not commence until 1840 when Hobler recorded in his diary laying the foundation stone. It appears that during the delay Robertson was replaced as architect by John Verge. So closely does the house resemble Verge's work in its planning and detailing that it is accepted that it is the work of the premier architect, John Verge. Before Hobler could finish the house, he had fallen prey, as so many of his contemporaries had, to the financial depression of the early 1840s which devastated the colony. Hobler stopped work on the house in 1842, filed his "Insolvent Schedule" and was declared bankrupt. Hobler had completed the entrance hall, stair hall, drawing room and breakfast room. The rest of the house was left unfinished. Hobler stayed on until 1845 although the estate was sold in 1843. In 1846 William Nicholson leased the estate and he bought it in 1853. He made the remainder of the house habitable at this time. This work appears to have been completed by 1858 when the house was leased to Walter Hall and his sisters as a boarding school. It continued in the Nicholson family until 1910, then passed through marriage to the McKeachie family. In 1966 the McKeachie family sold the house, by then deteriorated, to Mr Jackson, a local plumber. In 1977 Jackson subdivided the land into four lots. The house and two of the lots were sold to Mr and Mrs Phillip Jones who undertook urgent and major conservation work. Since 1983 the property has been under various ownerships. Description This is an incomplete two storey early Victorian house overlooking a bend in the Hunter River. It is built of finely worked Ravensfield sandstone with a slate roof. It is a large rectangular house, drawing in plan from the compact form of the late 18th and early 19th century English neo-classical villas, with well proportioned rooms arranged around a central