The history of Greenknowe as told by Miss Francis Jane Ellis
On 4th March 1992 Miss Frances Jane Ellis, who has lived in Greenknowe for fifty three years, told the story of the building to Jill Armstrong, the current secretary. This is her story.
Miss Ellis and her mother Jean Ellis moved into this building in August 1939, and lived in unit 44 for three years. After this they moved into unit 25, and later on purchased that unit. At that time Mrs. Hinks, who was living in unit 60, owned the building. Greenknowe had been built by her husband in 1929, and was the first reinforced concrete unit block in Sydney. Mr. Hinks committed suicide some years before 1939 after experiencing financial difficulties.
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Greenknowe 1940
(Photo with thanks to the City of Sydney Archives)
Greenknowe in 1963 during the construction changing Greenknowe Avenue from a cul-de-sac to a through road. (Photo with thanks to the City of Sydney Archives)
In 1939 Mr. and Mrs. West were the manager/caretakers of the building, and resided in unit 12. There was a door connecting unit 12 and unit 1, the sitting room of unit 1 being the building’s office. This was looked after by a Miss South. The eastern room of unit 1 was a bachelor flat and was let. In the office there was a switchboard, and on each floor opposite the lift was a telephone for the floor. For incoming calls, the secretary had a different ring for each unit (Mrs & Miss Ellis’s ring was 3 long rings). If residents wanted to ring out there was a public phone in the office.
There were three mail deliveries a day in those days, with all the mail being delivered to the office. Residents collected their mail from the office. The building was called Greenknowe Flats and the units had the same layout as they have now.
The ground floor was always an open area, with the present switch room at the front on the eastern side. There was an empty room in the south western corner which had very thick walls and was later a designated air raid shelter. It was traditionally the home of the building cat. The night of the Japanese submarine attack on Sydney Miss Ellis heard a loud bang which was thought to be blasting at the Capt. Cook Dock, Garden Island. Next the siren sounded and Mr. West, with Miss Ellis’s assistance, rounded up the residents and escorted them to the air raid shelter on the ground floor. Two elderly sisters in their nightdresses were escorted to the door by Miss Ellis, but on seeing the cat with her kittens they flatly refused to enter, and stayed in the ground floor area.
At this time the foyer was decorated in what Miss Ellis believes to be a Moorish style. The window into what is now the front office had a decorative wrought iron grille over it; the walls were tiled half way up with stylish fancy pink and fawn mottled tiles; and the walls were painted a deep creamy fawn. The floor has not changed. The lights were lantern in style with wrought iron decoration blending with the window grille. The stair tiles were as they now are, and the foyer tiles blended in with those.
The door into the office was always there, but it just led to an open area. In those days people could rent space and garage their car in the area which is now the office, as well as in the present garage area. Miss Ellis says there were quite a few cars in those days. Miss Smith, who lived in unit 5 and was allegedly the girl friend of the head of a large company had a big black chauffer driven car which was garaged there. Miss Smith was a large tall woman who wore big black picture hats.
The passageways on each floor were carpeted with a carpet runner, and the magnesite on each side of the fawn and blue patterned carpet was painted light brown. The passage walls were cream as they are now.
In 1939 there was a laundry exactly the same as it is now, and there were two early model washing machines which washed the clothes but did not rinse. Rinsing was done in the tubs, and hand wringers were attached to the tubs. The wringers remained until about the 1980s. (The present secretary remembers the last of them being disposed of about 1985.) The laundry has not otherwise changed.
The present penthouse was at that time a caretaker’s cottage on the roof, which was let during these years.
The boiler room was in the same place, and there was a refrigeration unit somewhere in the same vicinity which controlled all the refrigerators throughout the building. The caretaker turned these off every ten to fourteen days to allow the refrigerators to defrost. This system remained until after the war (1945), when the refrigeration packed up and people used ice in their fridges to keep their food cool.
About three to four years after the war Mrs. West died of cancer, and Mr. West retired to Wagga Wagga where his brother Canon West resided. Mrs. Hinks had difficulty replacing Mr. West, who had been invaluable. A woman was appointed to do the cleaning and manage the building, but she was not satisfactory and only stayed about one year. About 1950 or soon after, Mrs. Hinks decided she had had enough of the building, sold it to the Catholic Life Assurance, and moved to Northbridge to be near her only son.
A series of unsatisfactory caretakers followed, of whom Miss Ellis remembers the first, a Scandinavian whose name was Larsen. The building became run down during this time, but eventually a satisfactory caretaker was found in the person of Mr. Richards, an Englishman. By this time Unit 1 had been converted to a one bedroom unit as it is at present and became the caretaker’s unit as well as the company office. The door to unit 12 was blocked off. At this time the mail was delivered to the caretaker, who distributed it into what were known at the time as the milk boxes.
Up to the time Watson’s purchased the building, the units were rented and the whole building was owned by one person or Company.
Watsons Dredging purchased the building about the beginning of 1960. They then turned the garage and the present office into office space for themselves, including a big drawing office at the back of the garage. The elder Mr. Watson, who was also the Managing Director of ComEng (Commonwealth Engineering) moved into the penthouse, and this is believed to be when the penthouse was extended. There was no dividing fence on the roof during this time.
Mr. Watson moved out of the building before the office moved out, and the penthouse was taken over by the Sydney Bridge Club on a rental basis.
After Watsons took over they did up the building. They repainted the passageways and laid the linoleum tiles which are still in the corridors today over the magnesite. The foyer was altered to its present decor—the blue tiles were installed at this stage and the post boxes added. The front door has not changed.
The laundry washing machines were replaced with one Benedix washing machine. This only lasted a couple of years because people kept overloading it, so eventually Watsons installed two electric coppers, one of which is still in the laundry today while the other one was removed in June 1988.
The flats were all refurbished at this time. The tiling in kitchens and bathrooms was repaired (not replaced); they put copper piping right through the building which was lowered from the roof; they put in new stoves and sinks; and refrigerators were put into every unit. Miss Ellis had the same General Electric refrigerator that Watsons installed in 1960 until February 1992, and says no mechanic was ever required to look at it or service it until February this year, when it simply died.
After the renovations Watsons offered the units for sale to their tenants. If you were living in the unit the price was less than to outsiders, and the Ellis’s bought their unit 25 for three thousand pounds—to an outsider it would have been four thousand pounds. The units were sold on terms of 15% down payment and the balance over ten years at 7% interest. The Company Greenknowe Limited was incorporated on 20.2.1961.
Watsons moved their office to St. Leonards in the late 1970s, and by that time all the units had been sold.
The Manhatten garage was originally a service station owned by Lewis Cohen. It leased car parking before it was purchased by the Manhatten Hotel.
The street Greenknowe Avenue was named after the mansion Greenknowe, which originally occupied the site which became Greenknowe Flats. Greenknowe Avenue was a cul de sac until about 1963 when the two houses across the lower end were demolished and the road taken through to meet Elizabeth Bay Road.
Further oral history of Greenknowe
Contributed by Miss Frances Ellis and Miss H Heffernan
Mr. Hinks made his money in gold mines in New Guinea, where he worked with a Structural Engineer by the name of Robbie Burns. After their return from New Guinea Mr. Hinks engaged Robbie Burns to oversee the construction of Greenknowe Flats, and in gratitude offered him any unit in the building. Robbie Burns chose unit 18, taking in a room of unit 19, and lived there with his wife Winifred until 1980. They brought up two children in Greenknowe—a boy Robert and a daughter Margaret. Mr. & Mrs. Burns retired to Sussex Inlet in 1980. Robbie Burns served in the war as an Engineer Officer in the Navy.
