End of an era for Hordern family as their Bellevue Hill mansion hits the market

When June Baillieu and Samuel Hordern were married in 1934 their respective fathers commissioned a grand mansion in Bellevue Hill as a wedding gift that befits the union of two of Australia’s most prominent families. More than 80 years later their descendants are selling the family home, marking the end of an era for the retail dynasty.

Noted architect of the time Leslie Wilkinson was commissioned to design the home by family patriarchs, pastoralist and merchant Sir Samuel Hordern and Melbourne’s Clive Baillieu, of the political and stockbroking family.

The heritage-listed home is for sale through James McCowan, of Sotheby’s International.

Selling hasn’t been an easy decision for the family, not least because it will uproot the last two generations from their childhood home, Samuel Hordern Snr, who was born there, his wife Joy, and their youngest son Samuel. Elder son Anthony has already moved out, but still shares ownership with his brother.

On the upside, the sale will end the costly maintenance that comes with the classic Mediterranean-style residence.

“It’s a very big property, it’s expensive to maintain and it has to be maintained. With a property like this you want to maintain it to give it its due respect,” said Anthony Hordern.

Regarded as one of the best preserved examples of Wilkinson’s work, the Hordern family home is set on the peak of the hill on what was a corner land parcel of the Rona estate chosen for its view to the heads, and sold off by the Knox family for £6000.

The 2700 square metres includes a century-old magnolia tree on the block’s eastern boundary, and in classic Wilkinson style is set behind a walled entry with a church-style forecourt.

There is the Hordern family coat of arms in the facade, and it features Spanish Mission-style arched doorways, curved balconies and sandstone terraces. The eight bedrooms, five bathrooms and two kitchens are spread between an east and west wing.

After Samuel Hordern died in a car accident in 1960, his widow June lived on in the home’s west wing until she died in 1999, aged 90. It was in a rundown state when she died, but a major renovation during the past 20 years – overseen by Joy Hordern – has restored much of the home’s original charm, and in the process removed the pokey 1950s cabinetry and garish green and pink carpets.

The swimming pool was added in the late 1980s and the wiring redone more than a decade ago.

“It’s been a happy house,” said Samuel Hordern Snr. “But a house doesn’t make the family.”

“It was well known during the [Second World] War for the many parties my mother hosted for the visiting troops at the time,” Hordern Snr said. “There were always senior ranking officers but she always insisted that the boys from the field were also invited along and there were usually at least 40 or so.”

The Horderns rose to prominence in Australia for founding Anthony Hordern and Sons, the company behind what was until the 1950s Australia’s largest department store, known in its heyday as Hordern’s Emporium and a retailer of everything from “a needle to an anchor”.

Sir Samuel Hordern later headed up Anthony Hordern and Sons following the death of his father Samuel Hordern in 1909, and was president of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW from 1915 to 1941, taking a lead role in advancing the Easter Show from being a fair to a major agricultural event.

True to the family’s strong sense of tradition, his son Samuel Hordern also took up the role as president of the agricultural society in 1954 and in 1949 founded Yulgilbar Santa Gertrudis Stud on the Clarence River in northern NSW.

Yulgilbar Station is now owned by Samuel Hordern’s daughter Sarah Myer and her husband Baillieu “Bails” Myer, of the Myer retail dynasty.

This article has been amended since publication.