Tennis interrupted as Alba Longa, the Appian Way, Burwood trophy home sold
Alba Longa, the restored Queen Anne style home on Burwood's Appian Way, sold at weekend auction for $4,725,000.
There were $4 million plus hopes for the six bedroom, four bathroom 1907 home, so the eight registered parties had no chance of plundering the trophy home offering.
Indeed only three bidders actually got the chance to compete after the $3.8 million opening bid.
It was renovated in 2003.
The 1,796 square metre holding sold through Richardson & Wrench Strathfield selllng agent Chris Virgona who rightly advised Appian Way is regarded as one of the most exclusive addresses in Sydney. Some 300 turned up to the weekend auction, including the locals who interrupted their mid-afternoon tennis game on the court that sits within the leafy precinct.
One of Sydney's most outstanding bungalow precincts, the Appian Way was classified by the National Trust of Australia in 1977. In the centre of the street is a picket-fenced recreation area that originally consisted of a pavilion, tennis court, croquet green and bowling lawn. In 1909, the croquet lawn was removed and a tennis club established. The weatherboard pavilion is a gracious reminder of the precinct's early days.
Property Observer columnist Margie Blok once noted Appian Way houses were designed so the occupants could view the recreation area from their front veranda.
The garden suburb Alba Longa listing cames with all the internal period features – marble and cast iron fireplaces, stained glass and leadlight windows, picture rails and ceiling rose.
It last traded for $1,008,500 in 1997. Built in the Queen Anne style with an octagonal tower above the nook of the drawing room, Mrs Mowbray Forrest lived there from 1907 until 1911, Henry Moses occupied the house between 1911 and 1914, and then Hedley Dawborn moved in and lived at Alba Longa until 1925.
The wealthy industrialist George Hoskins - who had lived at Burwood since 1893 in a magnificent mansion that he built, called St Cloud - developed the Appian Way as a model residential area.
In keeping with the Appian Way theme, Alba Longa takes the name of an ancient city of Latium in central Italy.