Urrbrae House left to Adelaide University by Peter/Matilda Waite; a museum within campus of agriculture research
Urrbrae House in Adelaide's southern suburbs foothills. The mail hall's stairs and minstrels gallery (at left) in cedar and blackwood with ceiling papers above designed by Aldman Heaton who went on to create much of the interior for the Titanic. Below right: The dining room with furniture made by John Taylor & Sons in Edingburgh, Scotland, in 1876.
Dining room image by Paul Stokes.
Urrbrae House, the two-storey bluestone mansion completed in 1891 as the home of Peter and Matilda Waite, became a working museum and used for events by University of Adelaide that received the property as a bequest from the Waites in 1923.
Urrbrae House, in Adelaide southern suburbs, became part of the Waite historic precinct incorporating the internationally renowned Waite arboretum and conservation reserve.
Waites’ Urrbrae House replaced a large single-storey home believed to have been built about 1850 by Robert Forsyth Macgeorge on land her bought in 1846 and called "Urrbrae". "Urr" was after his home parish in Scotland and "brae" denoting a slope or hillside especially near a creek or river.
The land, unsubdivided since 1839, was bought by South Australian pastoralist Peter Waite in the mid 1870s with help from another pastoralist Thomas Elder. Waite and his family moved in 1877 into the new version of Urrbrae House, designed by C. H. Marryat and E. J. Woods. It was built by Nicholas W. Trudgen and the interior decorations designed by Aldam Heaton, a contemporary of William Morris. After the death of its founder in 1897, Aldam Heaton & Co. would go on to design much of the interior of the Titanic. Urrbrae House was its only commission in Australia.
After Peter and Matilda Waite died in 1922, Urrbrae House was handed over to the University of Adelaide by their daughters, Lily and Eva Waite in 1923. From 1924 to 1973, Urrbrae House was the residence of Waite Agricultural Research Institute directors and their families. In the first years of the Waite Institute, it also hosted the administrative offices, the library and a laboratory until 1929.
In the late 1960s, Waite Director Dr James (Jim) Melville suggested part of the house might be used for the benefit of institute staff and students. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Urrbrae House was the home of Waite Staff Club and the Waite refectory/cafeteria.
Urrbrae House and its gardens had a major revitalisation in the 1990s as its heritage value and potential as a focus for cultural and social activities for the on-campus community and the general public were recognised by director/professor Harold Woolhouse. Urrbrae House became an accredited museum, and the historic and cultural heart of the University of Adelaide's Waite campus.
