Denistone House - History where you find it!

While visitng a family member in Ryde Hospital, I took time out to explore Denistone House and its history. Denistone House is now an administration block in the grounds of Ryde Hospital in Sydney, New South South Wales.

Denistone House was rebuilt in as an imposing stone residence in 1872 by Richard Rouse Terry, grandson of the wealthy convict Samuel Terry, and brother of Edward Terry the first mayor of Ryde.

The original "Dennistone House", was the property of Dr Thomas Forster and named in memory of his English birthplace. [Thomas Forster was the husband of Gregory Blaxland's daughter, Elizabeth. In 1829, Blaxland transferred Brush Farm Estate to Elizabeth and Dr Forster. In 1830 they expanded the estate by purchasing the Porteous Mount grants of 120 acres on the Denistone ridge].

The house was destroyed by a bushfire in 1855.

In 1872, the land was acquired by Richard Rouse Terry who built the current house.

A plaque funded by the NSW Bicentennial Council reads:

This "Handsome Mansion" was bult in 1872

by Richard Rouse Terry. A "picture of

elegance and comfort of the most unostentatious

kind" it was an integral part of the social life of

early Ryde."

Denistone House was purchased by the New South Wales Government in 1913 for use as a convalescent home for men. It later became the maternity wing of the Ryde District Soldiers' Memorial Hospital which opened in May 1934.