Creator of the Married Women's Property Bill's home on market in SA
This is a home that all property enthusiasts will be dying to see - the South Australian Strathalbyn home of the late-1800s mayor of Strathalbyn and, notably, someone instrumental in the creation of the Married Women's Property Bill.
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This legislation, just predating the Married Women's Property Act, allowed females to own property and have property rights where previously entailments to male ancestors are common.
On 6 Gressford Lane, "The Briars" is a five-bedroom, one-bathroom offering asking $640,000 to $660,000.
Built in circa 1870, and acquired by the local mayor and solicitor Edward Jones Tucker in 1880, it reportedly remained in the family for 120 years undergoing extensions and alterations since.
Tucker had been the longest practicing solicitor in the state at his 1939 death, where he was buried at the family estate in Sandergrove. He used to ride his horse to the district court and the house's stables are originals. On Tucker's death, the property passed to his son, Howard Erskine.
It has federation style extensions, Art Nouveau decorative detail and many original features such as friezes, wallpapers, lead-light and French doors.
All the bedrooms include fireplaces, and three have walk-in wadrobes. It also has a sunroom, a cellar and a walk-in linen cupboard.
On approximately 1,580 square metres, it also has a cobblestone-floored hand-hewn timber coach house, according to the listing, with a thatched roof.
St Andrew's Uniting Church also owes much to Mrs E. J. Tucker who in 1895 enabled the clock tower project to be completed, and donated the vestry and furnishings to the Church to celebrate 100 years of Presbyterianism in South Australia, according to Church records.
RP Data notes that the property went on the market in October 2013, and had previous plans to be sold at auction.
