Former Weston Road (now Victoria Road), near Darling Street, Rozelle NSW 2039 — demolished historic manse

Former St Paul’s Presbyterian Manse

The former St Paul’s Presbyterian Manse belongs to the first substantial period of building around the western end of the Balmain peninsula. The small Balmain West Presbyterian congregation began worship in a rented Goodsir Street cottage in 1873, established a church building in 1876 and welcomed the Reverend George Grimm as its minister in 1880. With no manse available, Grimm initially lived at Carieville, the stone villa at 8 White Street in Balmain.

Plans for a purpose-built minister’s residence took shape beside the church. On 25 August 1883 William Wright of Drummoyne House laid its foundation stone. The house faced Weston Road, later Victoria Road, contained ten rooms and was ready for occupation early in 1884. Alexander Elphinstone is associated with the design in later Rozelle histories. The residence and its neighbour, the original church building, appear together in a photograph reproduced in Journal 9; a second photograph shows the manse at the left of Rozelle Post Office in 1895.

Grimm remained a leading Presbyterian minister and teacher until his death in 1897. The building itself did not survive. During the widening of Victoria Road in the mid-1950s, the manse, original church and Rozelle Post Office were removed. This Housetory proposal must therefore be a virtual historic-site story using its documented photograph and approximate historic setting: it must not show a current extant house or place a precise marker without a verified historical plan.

Source: John Williams, “Reverend George Grimm (1833–1897): A Biographical Study”, Leichhardt Historical Journal No. 9 (1980), pp. 13–17; photograph at PDF page 15. View LHJ source PDF.

Historical site only: the original manse was demolished. Its exact current cadastral position remains to be researched; do not associate this record with a surviving Victoria Road house.