Another painting from ebay.

I’ve bought another painting off ebay.

Not as cheap as the one I bought for a $1.00 late last year.

I removed the frame and gave it a few coats of glossy white paint.  I think it looks a lot better.

The description of the painting said that it was of

         Sebrof Mansion on Orrong Road, Armadale painted by J Edelman in 1979 .

As I’ve not had the opportunity to go to Armadale, Victoria  and absolutely LOVE old houses and mansions (in this case)  I had to try to find out more about Sebrof Mansion.

So…

The house has been on the market at some point in the last few years.  I’ve borrowed some photos from Domain.com.au to show you what it looks like today.

I found some images on Trove of what the house looked like in 1975, closer to the time when the artist painted the picture.

It was originally Built for the Hon William Williams by architects Dalton & Gibbons 1885-1886 and later owned by the Forbes family who named it “Sebrof” ( Forbes reversed).

I also found Sebrof Mansion mentioned in quite a few newspaper articles and advertisements on Trove.

24/02/1920

07/06/1893                                       

21/08/1919

21/08/1913

16/10/1894

This grand old girl  has a lot of history and if the walls could talk, many stories to share.

 

So who is Old Pearly Jenkins??

Once the house was ours, I couldn’t wait to get started researching its history.  It was so exciting to receive the copy of the original Certificate of Title.  I raced off  to the Brisbane City Archives in Moorooka.  I wanted to find out when the house was built.   I was looking for any kind of record for permits. I spent many hours going through the records and found nothing!!  The title has lots of different names on it and I tried all of them.  All I wanted to know was who built the house and when.

Meanwhile we moved in and got started on the back garden.  During this time we meet our neighbour over the back fence and to the right,  She’s been living in her house for a VERY long time.  Her parents brought the house new.  Our neighbour is in her 80’s!!  So after chatting over the fence, it occurred to me that she might just be the person to ask about our house.

I asked “Did you know the people who built the house?’

“Yes” she said “It was Old Pearly Jenkins”.  Jackpot!!  ” oh and her husband Charlie”.

She is a wealth of information about the suburb we live in too.  It’s so brilliant to listen to her talk.  Where ever I’ve lived, I’ve always had an interest in the local history.

What I found interesting about this place is that the 16 perches was first brought by Mary Jane Skinner in 1888 but wasn’t built on until approximately 1937.  So by my calculations this little block of land sat vacant in between two houses for 49 years!!

At some point during that 49 years, The family  next door brought it and used the block as a garden. It turns out it was Pearly’s sister who lived next door. …..

To be continued….

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