Heritage Plaques

Corner McClelland & Warrane Roads, Willoughby East

The hall was opened on 3 July 1954 to honour the Victoria Cross winner Albert Chowne who died on active service in New Guinea. Eric Nicholls, an honorary architect of Willoughby Council and a former partner of Walter Burley Griffin, designed the hall. Due to war shortages its construction was delayed from 1945 to 1950, and even then a modified version was built. The hall was extended and refurbished several times in 1958, 1970 and again in 1981.

3 Broughton Road, Artarmon

Martha Sloan bought the land in 1908 on which the Drill Hall was built. In 1918 Herbert Sparrow Hart purchased the property and leased it to the Trustees for the Artarmon School of Arts. The School provided a lending library and recreational facilities for its members. The property was acquired by the Church of England in 1926 and renamed St Basil’s Institute and continued the work of the School. Later it became the Church Hall and was also used as a Community Centre. The Hall played an important role in the social life of local residents as a venue for activities such as regular local theatrical productions. In 1980 the Hall was sold for redevelopment.

Hampden Road, Artarmon

Artarmon Station opened on 6/7/1898 with a single platform on the down side of a single line from St Leonards to Hornsby, 624 metres north of its present position. It was replaced with a new island platform in the current location on 7/10/1900 as the trains had difficulty starting on the 1 in 52 grade at the old station. The original timber building was re-erected on the platform. In 1908 the building was improved and signals were installed. On 15/7/1916 the standard type brick station building that we see today was opened. The electrification of the line started in 1927 and took five years to complete.

98 Sailors Bay Road, Northbridge

This private school catered for up to 65 local children to early high school level. It  was established about 1922, probably at St. Marks Church of England at its original site in Sailors Bay Road. In 1924 the school was relocated to 100-110 Sailors Bay Road and included ”Moama” (now no.98), the residence of Mrs Blanch Bailey the principal. Bailey’s Hall was part of the house, and was used by the school and the community for meetings and social events. It is believed to be the first school in Northbridge and existed to the middle 1940s.

Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag

The south side of the shopping centre contains the Griffin Centre, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and built in 1924. Lot 2 contains two shops, built in 1926, and a shed built in 1928 which was converted to an Esso Service Station in 1952 by the owner, John Henry Foster Bennett. In 1956 an Ampol Petrol Station opened on the site of the timber sheds of T J Warner’s Waratah dairy. In 1979 the petrol station sites, together with the Commonwealth Bank, became the Quadrangle.