| Historical notes: | The "Eora people" was the name given to the coastal Aborigines around Sydney. Central Sydney is therefore often referred to as "Eora Country". Within the City of Sydney local government area, the traditional owners are the Cadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora.
With the invasion of the Sydney region, the Cadigal and Wangal people were decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today.
In 1854, land comprising 120 acres was chosen at Grose Farm for the University and four affiliated colleges, with 10 acres sub-granted by the University for the site of St Andrew's College.
After delays caused by world-wide rifts among Presbyterians, an act to incorporate St Andrew's College was passed in 1867, the first council was elected in 1870 and the main stone buildings on the sub-grant were begun in 1874, first occupied in 1876 and completed in 1877. The architect, William Munro, and the builder, John McLeod, were Scots, and the link with Scotland has remained a major aspect of College tradition.
Munro's three-storeyed, rectangular stone building with a central tower and three metal spires, housed initially only the Principal (Dr Kinross) and his family, the porter and his wife, and seven male students. By 1890 the number of students had increased to 23 and all rooms in the original rectangle were brought into use. There were two fine public rooms : on the lower storey a lecture-theatre, junior common-room and dining-place combined, with Lyon and Cottier stained glass in all 7 large windows; on the upper storey a splendid library with a striking silk-screened ceiling also by Lyon and Cottier.
In 1892-1893, to accommodate the training of candidates for the Presbyterian ministry, a two storeyed additional wing at right angles to the main tower was constructed to the design of John Sulman. The ground floor of Sulman wing had three rooms for teaching staff and a well-proportioned lecture-room (now the Senior Common Room). Upstairs in the new wing was the first dedicated dining hall (now the Chapel), with an elegant waggon ceiling in timber. In 1898 the estate of John Hunter Baillie came to the college to endow two chairs within the Theological School.
The grounds , including the avenue of trees which leads towards the University were initially laid out by Charles Moore, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The first Principal's Lodge outside the main building was built in 1902 for Dr Harper. This freed the entire south-east corner of the Munro building for other purposes, although the Principal retained the ground-floor room as his office, which it still is today.
In 1902 also, the first female residential housekeeper was appointed : Polly McDougall and her successors were housed in a three-storeyed stone house designed by Sulman and built with the new wing in 1892-1893. Servants' quarters and the new kitchen joined the matron's residence to the 1893 dining-room.
In the period before World War I, student numbers rose rapidly with some resident tutors, and a new stone wing ( now known as Vaucluse) was added parallel to the Sulman wing in 1913-1914.
After Harper ceased to be Principal in 1920, his lodge became the Theological Hall and the lower floor of the Sulman wing was used for other purposes. The great library room in the original building was converted to a chapel under Principal Cumming Thom in 1940 and the old theological lecture-hall held the library until 1960, when the library room was restored to its original function. The Sulman dining-hall, now too small for student needs, became the chapel at this time and a final addition was made to the main building by Leslie Wilkinson and Elice Nosworthy in 1960. This addition, skilfully inserted on the Missenden Road side of College, houses the present large dining-hall upstairs with the Junior Common Room below.
By the 1950s there were 150 students in residence. Further residential accommodation was provided with the construction of Reid Building in 1953, to the design of Emils Sodesten, and Thyne Building (McConnel Smith and Johnson) in 1966.
Angus Hall, originally designed as a lecture theatre but now used as a gymnasium and tutorial room, was completed in 1961 to the design of Tomy Moore in conjunciton with McConnel Smith and Johnson. This was followed by The Principal's Residence ( The Dougan Lodge) in 1964.
The oval was constructed with an underground car park and subterranean change rooms in 1966.
In 2002 the College accepted female undergraduate students for the first time.
Providing a grand entry portal to the College, The Carillon Building was constructed to the design of Clive Lucas Stapleton and Partner ( Project Architect Hector Abrahams) in 2006.
{ Refs: Shellard ( 1998); CLSP (2004); Howells ( 2007)} |