page_title: Stead House
section_title: Description and background
hierarchical_section_title: Stead House / Description and background
caption_attribution_description: English: Bethesda Maternity Hospital, 1936.
context_page_description: Stead House is a Victorian Italianate residence located at 12 Leicester Street, Marrickville, an inner western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The residence was established as Waterloo Villa in the early 1850s by Archibald Mitchell on part of the 12-hectare grant known as Wain's Farm. Stead House is an excellent example of a remnant grand estate house that is the product of a series of alterations and additions by owner Samuel Cook, manager of The Sydney Morning Herald in the late 19th century and The Salvation Army who purchased the property in 1911, following Cook's death in 1910.
context_section_description: The current Italianate presentation of the house to Leicester Street was carried out by Samuel Cook in 1892, as an embellishment of Mitchell's Waterloo Villa, renamed Frankford Villa in 1864 and subsequently Frankfort House during Cook's ownership. The Italianate makeover can be dated precisely due to detailed surveys found in the various field books of Public Works Department surveyor D. C. White who surveyed Frankfort House in 1891, and again in 1893.
  During Cook's ownership the house was set in a renowned garden with stands of exotic trees, a large Moreton Bay Fig, carriage loop and much vaunted rose beds to the east. Following the demise of Cook in 1910, his children subdivided the estate and sold it off, primarily as housing lots, but retaining a parcel of land associated with the house (including four house allotments to the north on Victoria Road, and one to the south fronting Leicester Street) at the corner of Victoria Road and the then newly created Leicester Street.
  The house was purchased by The Salvation Army in July 1911 at which time the house, renamed Hopeleigh, was deemed "...rather small and will allow only 32 beds for inmates...". In 1912 a wing was added to the rear northern portion to increase accommodation and it was licensed as a hospital in November 1916. In 1926 an additional wing was added to the rear southern portion and included specialist medical/obstetrics facilities.
  The ensuing years saw ongoing changes such as the enclosure of verandas and balconies and internal partitioning to increase capacity. The 1912 wing also effectively reoriented the building to face north to Victoria Road rather than east to Leicester Street. A formal garden was established with trellised walks between Hopeleigh and Victoria Road.
  The early post World War II period saw increasing pressure on accommodation and compliance with regulations. In 1955 construction of a purpose-built maternity hospital to the Victoria Road frontage commenced and that building was opened as the new Bethesda Hospital in March 1957. The former maternity hospital was refitted as nurse's quarters with some ancillary facilities, such as a kitchen and laundry, servicing the new hospital out of the basement.
  Bethesda Hospital in turn became difficult to operate due to its size and ongoing compliance with regulations, so hospital operations ceased in July 1973. Hopeleigh was named Stead House in honour of the matron of Bethesda Hospital, which was refitted as a convalescent home during the mid 1970s. Stead House continued as a hostel for female students and women of low income in the ensuing years; however, the difficulties of fire regulation compliance and ongoing maintenance costs, together with the closure of the adjoining convalescent home in 2007, prompted The Salvation Army to dispose of both the properties.
  Stead House was listed on the Inner West Council local government heritage register in March 1999.
caption: Hopeleigh Maternity Home, 1936
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