Buildings
Cranbrook School commenced in the former residence, Cranbrook, which had been built in 1859 as a two-storey residence for Robert Tooth. Additional alterations and additions took place in 1873 and, from 1902, Cranbrook was used as the residence for the NSW Governor. In 1910 and 1911, further additions to Cranbrook resulted in the building of the Governor's Ballroom, the terrace, parapet and the Victoria Road gates. Built in 1875, the Rotunda was originally used as a tennis pavilion. From 1962 to 1985 it was the School tuckshop.
The first facilities developed were the Sports Ground in 1918, which was renamed Hordern Oval in 1948, and the site of Dangar Playing Fields purchased in 1922 and opened in 1929. In 1918 a Science laboratory was established in the sandstone Stables which were built circa 1859. This building now houses the Foundation Office and the Uniform Shop. On the eastern side of Cranbrook work commenced on the New Classroom Block in 1919. This building was renamed the Perkins Building in 1946.
A Headmaster's residence, located on the western side of Cranbrook, was built in 1919, and was enlarged in 1927 . It was renamed Harvey House and became the Junior School. In 1979 Harvey House was then converted for boarding purposes and renamed Street House.
The first Gymnasium was built in 1925 and overlooked the oval. It was converted to a Common Room for Senior School teaching staff in 2004. In 1927, second-storey alterations to the 1880s Gate Lodge at the Victoria Road entrance converted it to the Headmaster’s Residence.
Of the other buildings, which can be identified as part of the modern Cranbrook campus, The Health Centre was built in 1927 as the School Hospital. A dormitory building named Stacy was added in 1946. Stacy is now the Support Department. Built in 1953, the War Memorial Hall became a centre for drama by the 1980s. Several kindergartens were established off-site during the 1940s and 1950s, two of which have operated since 1944, St Michael's and St Mark's Pre-schools.
Dickins House, was built in 1959 in Kent Road, Rose Bay and expanded in 1994. The Mark Bishop Science Building was built in 1962 and named in 1985. The Mansfield Building, built in 1968 as the Library, is now the home of the Art Department.
A laundry building built adjacent to the Stables in 1964 was converted to Archives and Alumni offices in 1997.
The Senior School Building, built in stages between 1976 and 1981, and the James Rowland Building, now used for design and technology, opened in 1986, further added to the facilities for senior students. In 1992, the purpose-built Furber Building was opened as the new Junior School. The Carter Building was opened in 2000 and provides additional science and computing facilities for the Senior School. The Justin McDonald Stand, overlooking Hordern Oval, was opened in 2004.
The Rose Bay Bowling Club
This history of the Rose Bay Bowling Club is included on this website as a requirement of Woollahra Municipal Council’s Development Application approval for the School’s new Junior School, where the school was conditioned to complete an interpretative study of the old Rose Bay Bowling Club.
In 2001, Cranbrook School acquired the site of the Rose Bay Bowling Club for a new Junior School following the bowling club’s amalgamation with the Double Bay Bowling Club. The Rose Bay Bowling Club played an important social and sporting role in the community during its 78 years of activity. When the club began in 1923, however, the land around the bowling greens was relatively undeveloped.
In the 19th century, the low-lying topography of this area of Rose Bay was described as a “morass”, a marshy bottomland absorbing the run-off from the Bellevue Hill catchment. While this slowed residential development, improvements in drainage introduced by Chinese market gardeners allowed it to be used for agriculture. Fortunately this lack of housing development encouraged the creation of recreational grounds with nearby Lyne Park set aside as early as 1902.
The bowling club site was originally part of a 1904 purchase on behalf of the Royal Sydney Golf Club and their current Royal Sydney Golf Club headquarters was built (1922) on the high ground of “The Knoll” overlooking the golf links. Cranbrook School also purchased 5.8 hectares (14½ acres) in the same area in 1921, later opening the “Rose Bay Playing Fields” in 1931 and renaming them as the Dangar Playing Fields in 1948. To complete this extensive recreational precinct, the Woollahra Council soon acquired over 13.7 hectares (34 acres) to form Woollahra Park.
With a strong precedent established for sporting grounds, the acquisition of land by the members of the Rose Bay Bowling and Recreation Club for the establishment of the bowling club was a logical addition to the precinct. In 1923, the forty members of the Bowling Club had applied to Council for approval for the firm Williamson & McIntyre to construct a clubhouse designed by the architect Graham Thomas.
Figure 1. Rose Bay Bowling and Recreation Club, 1925. Local History Collection, Woollahra Library.
The clubhouse was constructed in timber and masonry with a conventional tile roof complementing its suburban setting. With its hipped roof and deep verandah it drew its architectural inspiration from bowling clubs throughout the English-speaking world. The centre pavilion was the common ground for socializing before and after matches.
Two years after the clubhouse was completed, the Rose Bay Women’s Bowling Club was established and the women were amongst the first members of the NSW Women’s Bowling Association. In 1938, the Rose Bay Bowling and Recreation Club had slipped into voluntary liquidation following costly renovations but it reformed as the Rose Bay Bowling Club. The membership recovered, however, and by 1960, there were over 270 members. In the third quarter of the 20th century, bowling membership throughout the city began to decline. The Club gained members from the closure of the Bellevue Hill Bowling Club (1980) and the collapse of the Dover Heights Bowling Club (1992) but this was only a temporary reprieve.
Figure 2. Rose Bay Bowling Club with bowling greens in the foreground, 2007.
By the late 1990s, the Rose Bay Bowling Club was also seeking to merge their membership into other clubs, finally deciding to join the Double Bay Bowling Club in 2001. The Rose Bay Bowling Club site was sold to Cranbrook School for the development of a new Junior School. Following the closure, the surviving Rose Bay Bowling Club memorabilia including minute books, records, oral histories and artefacts were lodged with Sydney cultural institutions including the Powerhouse Museum, the State Library of New Wales, the Local Studies Collection of the Woollahra Library and Cranbrook School Archives.
This historical summary draws on the research and resources of the Local History Collection of the Woollahra Library and the Local History Librarian Ms Jane Britten.