So Very Modern, Once Upon A Time

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday January 9, 2009

Wendy Frew Urban Affairs Editor

EDWARD Winter was a "very modern man", interested in the latest household appliances and urban designs, and unconventional philosophies such as the Single Tax and Theosophical movements.

So, in the 1930s when he decided to build a home for his family in Sydney's Telopea, just north of Parramatta, he turned to a leading architect of the day, the American Walter Burley Griffin.

The result was "Redstone", a house that contains many of the distinctive features that mark Griffin's other houses, such as open planning, stonework set against timber joinery, curtained interior screens and a multi-layered roof with large overhangs.

The house - the last of Griffin's homes still remaining in the ownership of the family who commissioned it - has just been listed on the State Heritage Register, to the delight of Kerry Lee, the third generation of the Winter family to live in the house.

"My grandfather was a very modern person," said Mrs Lee. "He had every modern appliance people could have; he really enjoyed new things," she said.

Redstone had a single-tub washing machine, hot and cold running water, a toilet and hand basin in every bedroom, and an internal ventilation system - all novelties for the Australian home of that era.

Mr Winter grew up on London's Portobello Road, learnt the trade of gentleman's outfitter from his father, and then sailed for Sydney. After a brief stint at Gowings, the by-then multilingual draper established his own business in Pitt Street.

The house, and its 1800 square metres of mostly native garden, is the most intact of the architect's homes and the only Griffin-designed house in western Sydney, the Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, said yesterday.

"Redstone has state heritage significance because it's remained largely unchanged from the original design and layout overseen by Walter Burley Griffin," she said.

So well built and equipped was the house that neither Mrs Lee nor her parents, who lived at Redstone before her, have needed to update or renovate.

"I have an emotional attachment to the house but it is also very comfortable to live in," Mrs Lee said. "The kitchen is almost as good as a modern one. The house is not too big and satisfies all your needs."

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

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