This historical family home in Tenterfield must be sold. Elderly owners need to downsize. The total area of 2.51ha (6.2ac approx.) was granted initially to Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson in 1856, the first Premier of NSW. It was subsequently transferred to Frederic King who was a member of the family of Governor King who built the house. It was then sold to the Australian Joint Bank and was Tenterfield's first bank and residence of the manager until approximately 1878 when the banking chamber was moved to High Street. The house remained the manager's residence until the early 1890s and has since been a private residence.
The house was initially of colonial design, an imposing door in the middle and an even number of Windows each side of it. There was a 7 foot veranda along its front. The property was owned between September 1911 and January 1937 by Fanny Tompkins and during this period the veranda was widened and the front steps remained the same so that, as one ascended the steps it took you into the widened veranda in its middle.
The early kitchen was of weatherboard and lined with hessian and was at the southern end of the house. There was a separate building of two rooms, one a laundry and the other a sewing room near what is now the back entrance of the house. The foundations of this building still exist as do the steps which lead to the doors of the two rooms. The Bucknall family were the owners in the early 1950s and they made considerable alterations but leaving the basic internal structure as it was, the walls about 18 inches thick would have made it very hard to make much alteration. However they filled in the front veranda and put new circular steps at the front of the house.
The Braham family moved into the house in October 1963. In December 1967 Australia first surviving quintuplets were born & the house has been this family's home since then. In order to accommodate everybody there were two principal alterations:-the double garage was converted into a bedroom suite consisting of bedroom, dressing room, walk-in wardrobe, shower and toilet. A further extension which is a separate building forming a courtyard on the western side of the original house consists of two bedrooms, one with an ensuite and a storeroom. The house is now comprises six bedrooms, three of which have ensuite shower and toilet facilities and there is one central bathroom. Gradually over the years all of the children have left leaving Pat and Roger Braham needing to downsize their future accommodation.
During the Braham ownership the garden has been extended and is now principally of lawn, trees and shrubs. There are stables, feed and tack room, secure paddocks & a dam. With frontage to 4 streets, in the centre of town the property has unlimited potential.
