Additional
building, age unknown. Photograph
(c) David Powell, 2005
Built before 1900, Located at 24
Evans Road, Rooty Hill.
Originally built as a country homestead by the Evans family who named
it Fairholme and lived there for many years. The building is now part
of St Agnes Catholic High School.
St Agnes Catholic High School was established in 1962. It was founded
by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. It is part of the Christ
Catholic College Community of Schools.
A single storey brick building with hipped galvanised iron roof and
surrounding verandahs on all sides with timber posts. The house is
almost square in plan with 5 evenly spaced full height double hung
french doors along the front facade.
There is a larger, two storey brick building behind and to the right of
the original homestead. It's date of construction is unknown, although
it was built on the same lines as Fairholme.
The following reminiscence comes from the daughter of a previous owner:
My
Grandmother leased Fairholme from late 1939 to around 1945, running it
as a country retreat for wealthy Sydney residents – particularly those
who lived around the Eastern suburbs and who wished to be out of range
of any possible enemy attack. My parents met in 1941 and my Mother
lived at Fairholme while Dad was overseas on active service with the
Royal Australian Navy. Fairholme in those days was a very gracious
home, complete with summer house out in a courtyard. Beautiful rose
gardens up both sides of the drive way provided flowers for the
numerous silver vases that graced the long dining table – I have one of
those vases in our own home, and when I fill it with roses I sometimes
think of where it originally sat way back then.
At the end of 1945 my Grandmother
took up the lease of Woodstock and although I have no recollection of
that period. There was a very large swimming pool on the site and it
stuns me today to realize that it had no fence around it.
My parents lived there, along with
other members of Mum’s family, for quite some time and one of my Aunts
was married from the property. My Dad bought a block of land in Perkins
Street and after he finished building the house we moved from
Woodstock.
We lived in Perkins Street for a few
years and then my parents bought a large piece of land in Beaconsfield
Road and built another home where we lived until moving to yet another
house in Evans Road, directly opposite Fairholme, thus bringing thing
pretty much full circle. In the early 1970’s my folks moved out of the
area...
My best friend was a girl named Kate
Angus – her Grandfather bought the old Minchinbury property and Kate’s
family lived in a marvelous, rambling and rather grand old home in what
I think is now called Agnes Place. Her paternal Aunt, Frances, laid the
foundation stone for the Rooty Hill School of Arts, situated near the
railway station.
In simpler times, my cousins and I
used to visit the Station Master who would ask if we’d been well
behaved – if the answer was yes he let us pull the huge levers that
changed the points out on the tracks. He also let us open the swinging
gates when the train had passed through the level crossing that existed
then. Can you imagine anyone being allowed to do something like that
these days??
Another fond memory is my Dad taking
me with him to buy hay, bran and mash from McGarragher’s Produce store
which was situated almost adjacent to the railway station. Mr
McGarragher would sit us up on bales of hay and give us broken biscuits
in a cone of brown paper – since there was a good chance we’d get
seconds if were well behaved we were always on our best behaviour there.
