I am continuing on with some history of Windsor N.S.W this week.
The building at No 10 Bridge Street stands on the corner of George and Bridge Streets.
The building was constructed in 1856/7 as a residence for Dr Joshua Isaac Dowe and his family.
No 10 is believed to have been built by the brothers Melville ( a local builder ) because it’s facade is similar to Toxana, an historic building in Richmond. George Martin was the carpenter. Materials were probably local with the bricks being from Enfield ( Nth Richmond ) or Brickfield ( Sth Windsor ). The timber was cedar and hardwood logged locally at Kurrajong and the sandstone came from abundant local supplies. It is a two storey c. 1850 brick Regency Style building with a particularly fine cast iron verandah, balcony and stuccoed parapet and slate roof.
It was built during an economic boom when Windsor was expanding because of traffic to the gold diggings and further development of the country over the Blue Mountains. The agriculture and pastoral industry of the district grew and this brought about an increase in population and added to the river trade, so creating a need for more services including Doctors who in turn needed residences.
Are they really going to demolish that beautiful old house...? That would be tragic. In the UK that would be a listed building, especially with so much history written about it. I love the old houses.....our house was build in 1846 and has largely escaped the developers and modernisers. Although in the 1960's this large villa was converted into two semi-detached houses.....although we got the best half !
