– G’day James Sutton here. Last week I told you the story of Daniel Dering Mathew and the 400 acre parcel of land which he was granted in 1819, which he named the Clanville Estate. The Archbold family then acquired it from him and began to gradually clear it, establishing orchards. This week I’m here on Roseville Avenue, which was also part of the original Clanville Estate subdivision, to talk further about how this area was established. Now Richard Archbold had built a stone cottage amongst the orchards which he called “Rose Villa” and in 1850 he named the area after that cottage and that’s how this area became known as Roseville. The harvest from the orchards was transported down a road then called Dick’s Road that led down to the Lane Cove River where it was shipped into Sydney. Dick’s Road being named after Richard Archbold. And that’s now become known as Grosvenor Road. In the 1880s Rose Villa cottage was demolished to make way for the North Shore Railway Line which became the major catalyst for population growth of the area. In 1890 Roseville Station was built leading to a large parcel of Archbold’s Clanville Estate known as the “Roseville Station Estate” being offered up for subdivision. 46 lots were sold from an original subdivision of 114 in 1896 and the remaining 68 lots on Roseville Avenue and Lord Street were sold around 1900.

The blocks were marketed as being 349 feet above sea level. Last October I was lucky enough to sell number 54 Roseville Avenue, which was a six bedroom, four bathroom family home with a tennis court and pool. We sold it to a lovely family who were upsizing from the Willoughby area for $8.5 million. I believe that was part of the 1900 subdivision. Last week we introduced number 40 Roseville Avenue to the market, that’s the property you can see over my shoulder here. It’s an exquisite family home set on over 2,785 square metres. It seems that number 40 was part of the earlier 1896 subdivision sale. It’s believed George Voss Mocatta purchased four elevated residential blocks and called the house “Geraldra”, which he built in 1897 with the help of his sons. This was one of the first houses built on Roseville Avenue. Ensuingly it was renamed “Pialba”, and between 1941 and 1948 it became known as the “Kooyong Private Hospital” which was run by a lady named Mabel Francis.

In 1948 Dr. Leo Armati purchased the property and in 1979 it passed to our current clients, Jill and Richard Armati. The property presents magnificently with beautiful gardens and sweeping lawns, and it’s no wonder the Armati family have retained it for over 70 years. The current gardens were designed by Dr. Leo Armati in 1948 and Dr. Armati certainly had green fingers as he established a hot house for orchids in the garden, leading to the orchids being exported to the USA. The property has benefited from a very elegant restoration by the current owners though many original features set the house apart as well as the Camellia Japonica tree named McConnell Pink and the Macadamia Nut tree planted on this property by Dr. Armati. The Roseville market is riding the crest of a wave currently and the median price for houses in Roseville has spiked to $3.4 million. It’s a 17.6% increase on last year, and a 9.6% increase on the year before that. My name’s James Sutton, I hope you enjoyed the story of the establishment of Roseville and Roseville Avenue. And I’ll continue digging out lots more stories about Roseville in the coming weeks and months. So stay tuned. If you’d like to discuss your property, feel free to drop in and visit us at our McGrath North Shore office located at 280 Pacific Highway in Lindfield or give me a call on my mobile anytime. My number is 0-4-2-2-7-0-4-3-7-0. Bye for now.