Caroline Simpson Collection

St John's School on the north-west corner of Church and Macquarie Streets, Parramatta, around July 1870 / American and Australasian Photographic Company

American and Australasian Photographic Company.

1870

1 carte-de-visite ; sepia toned ; 6.5 x 10.5 cm.

Verso carries the printed trade label of the "American and Australasian Photographic Company / Melbourne Office 73 Little Collins St / Sydney Office 4 Barrack St" and is numbered, in pencil: 11509.

school buildings
picket fences
sandstone buildings
dormer windows
St. John's School (Parramatta, N.S.W.)

This sandstone schoolhouse was built in 1858 by local builders James Houison and Nathanial Payten, replacing an original timber building erected in 1810. The school was later known as St. John's Grammar School. It closed in 1900 and the building was demolished c1924-1925. [ref: Shylie & Ken Brown Parramatta, a town caught in time, 1870 Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1995, pp.27, 118]
The photographer Beaufoy Merlin and his American and Australasian Photographic Company arrived in Sydney from Victoria around July 1870, via several country towns in New South Wales. In an advertisement placed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 21 September 1870 he announced that they had "now just completed taking nearly 800 views of Parramatta alone". This photograph must be one of those views.

Estate of Rosalie Ann Watkins, nee Thorne, (1850-1927) of Penrose, Marsden Street Parramatta; Kenneth Stewart, Sydney antiquarian bookseller.

Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection ; CSL&RC PIC: small picture file : American & Australasian Photographic Co.

You may save or print this image for research and study. If you wish to use it for any other purposes, you must contact Museums of History NSW to request permission.

Picture

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