St Scholastica's (Toxteth Park), Glebe, Sydney

Toxteth Park is an historic house that now houses St Scholastica's College, Glebe in Sydney, New South Wales. It was built in 1829 by the Australian architect John Verge and is listed by the New South Wales Heritage Council as a building of historical significance. The house was owned by two generations of the Allen family and in 1901 was purchased by the Catholic Church and became a convent and a school. The building is now used by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan as the “Good Samaritan Congregational Centre” and is available for small group historical tours by arrangement.

George Allen was born in 1800 in London. His father died when he was only six and his mother remarried. His stepfather, Thomas Collicott, had a business selling medicines. In 1812 he was convicted of not affixing revenue stamps to the medicine bottles and was transported to Australia. The rest of the family including George who was then only 16, followed him to Australia in 1816. George was articled to a solicitor the next year and was a practicing solicitor in 1822. He was the first solicitor to receive his legal training in the colony.

During his training he joined the Wesleyan Church and became very religious. He became Secretary of the Benevolent Society and a member of the Temperance Society. He also had various political roles including Mayor of Sydney between 1844 and 1845 and Member of the NSW Legislative Council from 1856. In 1823 he married Jane Bowden who was the daughter of the schoolteacher Thomas Bowden. Over the years she bore fourteen children of whom five sons and five daughters survived.

In 1829 George commissioned the famous architect, John Verge, to build Toxteth House on 96 acres that he had acquired in Glebe. The original house built by Verge is shown below. It was a rectangular two story building with single storey wings. It also had a stone flagged verandah around two sides of the house. The gardens were very elaborate and contained an orchard and even a large private cricket ground. Over the years George Allen built several other houses on the estate including Tranby and Emslee which are shown below in the wide photo of the estate. In 1847 he built a Wesleyan Chapel on the grounds a photo of which is shown below. George had a particular interest in horticulture and the grounds surrounding the house contained many different varieties of trees and flowers. In 1845 he entered the Horticultural Show and displayed flowers which included amaranthus, celosia, fuchsia, salvia and amaryllis. He also entered various varieties of apples, pears, figs, passionfruit medlars almonds and capsicum.

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