Leuralla facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Leuralla |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Architectural style | Federation Free Classical |
| Location | 36 Olympian Parade Leura, New South Wales |
| Coordinates | 33°43′29″S 150°19′47″E / 33.7246°S 150.3297°E |
| Construction started | 1910 |
| Completed | 1914 |
| Governing body | The Evatt Family |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Edward Hewlett Hogben (1875–1936) |
| Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Leuralla is a beautiful old house located in Leura. This town is part of the amazing Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia. For many years, Leuralla was home to the Leuralla Toy & Railway Museum, which closed its doors in 2022.
The house you see today was built between 1910 and 1914. It was designed by a talented architect named Edward Hewlett Hogben. The large garden around the house is about 5 hectares (12 acres) in size. It was first designed in a formal style. Later, a famous gardener named Paul Sorensen made it even better. There's also a special outdoor theater, called an amphitheater, right on the edge of a cliff. It has amazing views of the Jamison Valley.
History of Leuralla
Leuralla was built for a wealthy man named Harry Andreas (1879–1955). He loved sailing and fishing for big fish. Harry and his wife, Alice, lived at Leuralla with their children until after World War II.
In 1928, their daughter Marjorie Andreas married Clive Evatt (1900–1984). This is how the Evatt family became connected to Leuralla. Clive Evatt Jnr, who was Harry Andreas's grandson, later helped manage the property.
Clive Evatt and his wife, Elizabeth Evatt, are the people who started the museum at Leuralla. They put together the collections of toys and railway models. They also displayed items belonging to H.V. Evatt (1894–1965). He was Clive Evatt Snr's brother and a very important Australian politician. Even though he had his own home in Leura, his items were shown here.
The House and Its Design
Before the current house, another house called Leuralla stood on this spot. It was built in 1903 but was sadly destroyed by a bushfire in 1909.
The house built between 1910 and 1914 was influenced by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a great example of a large, permanent home for a rich family from the early 1900s. It's a grand two-story house with big grounds. Its style is called Federation Free Classical.
Some special features of the house include:
- A grand entrance with a portico (a porch with columns) and a wide staircase.
- A balanced design, meaning both sides look similar (this is called symmetry).
- A decorative trim under the roof, called a bracketed cornice.
The walls and chimneys are smooth and covered in a special finish. The base of the house is made of rough-cut sandstone. Leuralla has a sloped roof with smaller sloped sections on the sides. The wide outdoor sandstone staircase has two sets of steps that meet under the portico. This portico has a balcony on the first floor with a railing. Doric columns (a type of ancient Greek column) decorate the entrance. The front door has many glass panes and narrow windows on the sides, called sidelights.
On either side of the portico, there are bay windows with sloped roofs, placed symmetrically. The main roof is covered in slate tiles and has terracotta ridges.
The garage building has a style called Federation Anglo-Dutch. Its walls are covered in shingles and it has decorative wooden panels, called a weatherboard spandrel. There's also a smaller sandstone building with a gabled roof (a roof with two sloping sides that form a triangle at the ends) on the Olympian Parade side of the property.
The Garden and Amphitheater
Harry Andreas started creating the beautiful garden at Leuralla very early on. Much of it was saved from the 1909 bushfire. After the new house was built in 1914, the garden was redesigned. It is still very large, covering 5 hectares (12 acres).
Harry Andreas first used a formal layout for the garden. Later, Paul Sorensen, a well-known landscape designer, made many improvements to the garden. There is also a sculpture garden on the south side of Olympian Parade.
The amphitheater is built right on the edge of the cliff. It uses this amazing location to offer spectacular views overlooking the Jamieson Valley.
Famous Visitors
In the 1930s, Leuralla was the home of the Katoomba Music Society. Because of this, many interesting and famous musicians visited the house. These included:
- Solomon Cutner, a world-famous pianist known as The Great Solomon.
- Sir Eugene Goossens, a famous composer and conductor.
- Sir Neville Cardus, a music critic and cricket commentator.
In 1927, during a royal tour of Australasia, Harry Andreas was a fishing guide for The Duke and Duchess of York. They later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the parents of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Toy and Railway Museum
Leuralla was home to a toy museum from 1980 until 2022. It had a huge collection of toys, children's books, games, and models from the 20th Century.
Some of the amazing items included:
- Rare tinplate trains, airplanes, zeppelins, ships, and cars.
- Figures made of lead and elastolin.
- Working model train layouts, complete with train stations, harbors, farms, gardens, and even military scenes.
The museum also featured characters like Alice in Wonderland, Tintin, Babar, Winnie the Pooh, Noddy, Rupert Bear, Popeye, James Bond, Action Man, Barbie, and Harry Potter. There were important dolls, teddy bears, stuffed animals, Meccano sets, construction kits, games, jigsaws, children's literature, and comics.
Outside, in the grounds, there was an outdoor display of model trains. You could also see original items from New South Wales railways, like signs, benches, and station equipment. These items were being removed from real railway stations in the 1980s and saved by the museum.
The house also had a special museum dedicated to Dr. H V Evatt. He was a very important Australian politician, thinker, and leader.
The museum also included a display of Nazi-themed toys. These toys were used to teach children the ideas of the German Nazi party. A sign at the display clearly stated that the museum "disclaims and condemns" such use. It explained that the toys were shown for public knowledge and education. When the museum closed in 2022, these specific Nazi-themed toys were not included in the sale of the rest of the collection.
See also
- National Transport and Toy Museum in Wanaka, New Zealand
- Nuremberg Toy Museum
