page_title: Gladswood House
section_title: Samuel Deane Gordon
hierarchical_section_title: Gladswood House / History / Samuel Deane Gordon
caption_attribution_description: English: Samuel Deane Gordon, owner of Gladswood House, Double Bay, NSW
context_page_description: Gladswood House is a two-storey Gothic Revival heritage-listed former multiple occupancy residence and grand house and now apartments located at 11 Gladswood Gardens, Double Bay in the Municipality of Woollahra local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by William Munro and possibly Hilly and built from 1862 to 1864. It is also known as Glenyarrah; Seaford House. The property is owned by Strata Plan No. 58597. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
context_section_description: Samuel Deane Gordon (1811-1882) built Gladswood House, then called Glenyarrah in about 1863. Samuel Deane Gordon was born in 1811 at Ballynahinch, County Down, Ireland. His father David Gordon was a farmer. His mother's name was Mary Deane. He came to Sydney in 1830 at the age of 19 and worked in several mercantile houses before becoming a successful merchant. He then turned to pastoral pursuits and leased Banandra run of over 50,000 acres on the Murrumbidgee River. He moved to Sydney and established a wine and spirit business and became the Director of several important companies.
  In 1839 he married Eliza Dickson in East Maitland and the couple had several children. Unfortunately she died in 1856. He remarried in 1863 in Ireland. His new bride was Emily Fielding, daughter of Joshua Fielding esq. of Belfast.
  During the 1860s he acquired more pastoral properties and became very wealthy. He was a prominent Presbyterian became a founder of St Andrew's College, Sydney, and member of its council. He was also a vice-president of the Highland Society and a member of the Victoria Club and the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He joined the committee of the Chamber of Commerce in 1867 and in the 1870s served on the committees of the Benevolent Asylum, the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary and the Hospital for Sick Children, and was a vice-president of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Horticultural Society of New South Wales.
  It is to Gordon's occupation that the first naming of the building Glenyarrah may be attributed. The earliest identification by name being the tender notices of 18 August 1864. G. Nesta Griffiths in her book "Point Piper Past and Present" suggests the name may be a compilation of the Scottish "glen" for valley and the anglicised aboriginal word "yarrah" for bum tree, being "Valley of the Gums". The Woollahra History & Heritage Society date the house to 1856, noting that the design may possibly be attributed to architect J. F. Hilly and note that under Gordon's occupation it was called "Seaford House" and this was changed to "Glenyarrah" during the stay (1883-1913) of Mr T. H. Kelly Snr. and family and later under Mr Spencer Brunton to Gladswood. Gordon may not have been Gladswood's first resident, for an undated Council Rate Assessment entry, possibly no later than 1863, records Gordon as owner with a J. H. Atkinson as "person rated". The rate records of 1863-64 also show both S. D. Gordon and the merchant and member of parliament William Walker as being "rated persons" for Gladswood, with Walker also entered for the adjacent property. G. Nesta Griffiths suggests that Walker took occupation of Gladswood whilst his own house Redleaf" was being constructed on the neighbouring property.
  The earliest verifiable illustration of "Gladswood" forms part of the background to a general view of Double Bay in The Illustrated Sydney News of 23 December 1871. A glimpse of the property within its context of Double Bay may be obtained from some general views of the period. An early photograph thought to date from around the 1870s shows the building in what must have been its early appearance at the time of Gordon's occupation. This clearly shows that the present southern wing is a later extension, it also shows the crenulated service wing compound wall with verandah and servant block in the background. An Eric Bayliss photograph of c. 1875 indicates the building's former commanding position on the point between the two bays.
  Gordon's occupation continued until his death in 1882 and is recorded in his monogram incorporated in the strained glass window on either side of the entry vestibule and panels that light the main stair. On his death Gordon left Glenyarrah to his daughter Jessie Maria Gordon who in turn sub-let the property to a F. B. Lark from 1883-1885. Both Munro and Gordon were associated with the setting up of St. Andrew's College at the University of Sydney, while the latter is commemorated with a fine stained-glass window in St. Andrew's Scots Church in Rose Bay. He died in 1882 and having been predec
caption: Samuel Deane Gordon
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