A repository of photographs of leadlight in homes in the Inner Western Suburbs of Sydney.
Marrickville
Leicester Street
Main Period: Victorian
Leadlight apparent at Stead House (Frankfort House)
Leicester Street & Bourne Streets were part of the Frankfort House & Grounds subdivision of 1911. Both streets have a large number of Mid-Federation houses and semi-detached houses that are largely intact. Regrettably, if any of these houses had any leadlight it has not been retained in any of the houses in the two streets.
Leicester Street
The sign at the front of Stead House provides some information on the immediate area and the house itself. James Wain arrived as a convict on the second fleet and was given a 30 acre grant when his sentence expired sometime around 1795. Archibald Mitchell purchased the farm in 1839 and Waterloo Villa appears on maps around 1850 with a second storey added in the 1860’s when its name changed to Frankfort.
​
The house was subsequently purchased by Samuel Cook in 1865 who converted the house in the Italianate style in 1892.
The Salvation Army purchased the house in 1911 and renamed it ‘Hopeleigh’ from which time it was used as a girls home and then a maternity hospital and renamed ‘Stead House’ to honour one of the matrons. It has now been converted into flats but retains its wonderful appearance and one panel of leadlight above the front door. This would appear to have been put in place in the 1880’s or even earlier.
