Juanita Nielsen's former Pittwater holiday home, with Foy retailing links, listed for sale

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Trincomalee, an 1890s stone and timber house on 4,300 square metres at Lovett Bay, Pittwater, has been listed for sale with price hopes of more than $3 million. It was owned for many decades by the Foy retailing family.

On Rocky Point between Elvina and Lovett bays, Trincomalee was once often visited by Juanita Nielsen, the Kings Cross newspaper proprietor who disappeared in the 1970s during the fight to save Victoria Street, Potts Point. It’s been listed for sale by the Macorison family through Mary Rowley of Belle Property Mona Vale-Bayview.

It last traded when the Macorisons paid $135,000 in 1978 to the executors of the estate of the late Neil Smith, the father of Juanita Nielsen. It comes with a self-contained cottage, studio, boatshed, jetty, sandy beach and rock pool, all in a pristine bushland setting.

In the 1880s the area was a prolific orchard of figs, lemons, oranges, grapes and olives. Pittwater was popular with Sydney's early retailers.

Maritana, another 1920s Pittwater retreat at Elvina Bay, was built using jarrah, kauri and spotted gum by the Gibsons of retailers Foy & Gibson. Set on about a 240-square-metre holding with 52-metre waterfront, boatshed, jetty and beach, the Vogue Living-featured residence traded in 1992 at $1 million when bought by recruitment executive Chris Aston James and his wife, Angela, from furniture maker Antony Loneragan and his wife, Elaine, who engaged local architect Dermer Bennett after it was traded at $324,000 in 1983.

It was built 1891 by the Stefani family. As one member was a pianist it came with elevated music room. It was bought by the Mark Foy family in 1926, who changed its name from the Red House to Trincomalee – meaning a view from three points – after they holidayed in Ceylon.