Heritage Ithiel listing as Penshurst median heads towards $1 million
Ithiel, the two storey heritage listed Penshurst mansion, has been listed for auction this weekend.
It is listed through Sanders Noonan Real Estate agents David Hughes and Panos Myrianthis with $1.4 million plus hopes.
CoreLogic RP Data shows the suburb's median house price sits at record $990,000 levels.
It was designed by architect James S. Hannan in the late 1880s on Inverness Avenue, where it has city skyline views from its cul de sac location.
The five bedroom Victorian Italianate mansion comes with asymmetrical facade with faceted bay, round arched windows, bracketed eaves and arcaded loggia. Its verandah comes with iron supports and decorative brackets and frieze.
It was built by the local builder John Sproule for Daniel James, who bought Penshurst Park Estate lot.
The name 'Ithiel' is thought to be of biblical origin, meaning "God is with me" as Daniel James and his family (a wife and seven children) were staunch members of the Church of England.
Daniel James had worked for David Jones as a tailor, then he set up his own business as a tobacconist, then as a tailor in Oxford Street, Sydney.
He retired in 1890 aged 51, dying in 1910.
Sydney George Blanton, a clothing merchant, purchased the home in 1913, finding it suitable for his family of eight children.
In 1928 the land around Ithiel was subdivided, and again in 1954 and 1955, to its current 1176 square metres.
In 1942, Ithiel was sold to Horace Edgar Frank Pinnock, a scientific instrument maker and amateur astronomer, then in 1955 to Stanley Vernon Royal, a chemist who purchased the house as an investment and converted it into four flats.
Kenneth Robinson, who purchased Ithiel in the late 1960s, began restoring the house to its original condition.
It last sold in 2008 at $1.02 million, when the suburb had a $625,000 median, with further restoration.
There have been three sales in the past year on the avenue at $1.3 million plus.
A recent $1.96 million sale on Denision Street holds the suburb record price for a 2003 built home on 700 plus square metres. Another house on Denision Street sold in early 2015 at $1,583,000.