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Summer Hill

Hurlstone Avenue

Main Period: Federation - Interwar

Leadlight apparent at No’s 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 16, 17 & 19

Hurlstone Avenue owes its name to John Kinlock who was one of the first graduates of Sydney University.  He was admitted as student at the new University of Sydney in 1852 in the first cohort of students, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1857 and Master of Arts in 1859. He bought the land now occupied by Trinity Grammar School and called it 'Hurlstone Estate, after his mother's maiden name.  In 1878 Kinlock set up the Hurlstone School and College. In 1907 Hurlstone became a boys only school. Kinloch was forced to sell the College only two years later and planned to break the Estate up and sell it in residential blocks. The subdivision did not happen because the NSW Government bought up the whole area and Hurlstone School and College became Hurlstone Teacher Training College of Female Teachers for the next 24 years. The school moved to Glenfield in 1926 and the nearby suburb became Hurlstone Park. Hurlstone Avenue now is a lovely street that consists of mainly Federation era houses with a couple of Californian bungalows.

Hurlstone Avenue is part of the 'Prospect Hall Summer Hill Heritage Conservation Area'.  The street 'has aesthetic significance deriving from the 1908 subdivision pattern with little re-subdivision since, and the original building covenants applying to the subdivision, resulting in an aesthetically consistent subdivision of wide streets with grass verges'  Draft Comprehensive Inner West DCP 2016, P.337. Arguably, Hurlstone Avenue is in a state of preservation not equalled by many other Garden Suburb Estates.

Not only have the houses been largely preserved but so has their beautiful Federation and Interwar leadlight.

1880 Hurlstone Estate Canterbury Road, P
1880 Prospect Hall - Summer Hill Estate

The Hurlstone Estate never happened But the Prospect Hall Estate of 1908 did.

Prospect Hall Estate Stanton Ad.JPG

Prospect Hall Estate subdivision sales advertisement, Evening News 14 October 1908 p2 Source: accessed online via Trove

Hurlstone Avenue

No 1 is a wonderful Federation house with leadlight in two six panel casement windows with fan lights. The leadlight looks absolutely wonderful. There’s also Leadlight in a bull’s-eye on the verandah.

No 1 Hurlstone Avenue Six Panel Casement
No 1 Hurlstone Avenue Six Panel Casement
No 1 Hurlstone Avenue Bull's Eye.jpg
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