Macquarie Street Gatehouse
[1] The building was designed as a gatekeeper's cottage, with a separate room set aside for the use of the Parramatta Park Trust.
The original building was constructed in 1848, immediately after a tragic accident to the wife of Governor Sir Charles Fitzroy, who was then living in Government House.
Governor Fitzroy and his wife, Lady Mary, accompanied by Lieutenant Charles Masters, were on their way to a wedding when the horses bolted soon after leaving the house and their carriage overturned near the entrance in George Street.
The following month, in January 1848, a newspaper made the following report: Workmen have commenced opening a new entrance at the end of Macquarie-street—at the angle formed by the turning of that street into Pitt-row to the Government Domain.
This cottage subsequently became the present gatehouse when major alterations and additions were made to it in 1887 by the Parramatta Park Trust.
The first gatekeeper in the new 1887 Victorian cottage was Mrs Bridget Reilly[6] (often misspelt Riley), who had been recently widowed.
In 1917 there was a newspaper report about the part that Mary Ann played, in her role as gatekeeper, in finding a lost child.
On the eve of their wedding, her friends held a surprise party in her home which was described in the local newspaper in the following terms: A number of the intimate friends of Mrs. Restall, of the Park Gate House, Macquarie-street, Parramatta, assembled at her residence on Wednesday night last to pay tribute to that lady on the eve of her marriage to Mr. A. Dietmair, which was to be quietly solemnised on the following day.
The company, numbering 35, assembled at the Centennial Fountain at 7.30 and marched en masse to the home of Mrs. Restall.
Charles joined the Parramatta Musical and Dramatic Society and assisted with the production of their many theatrical events.
[29] The Electoral Roll shows that Isobel, his wife, continued to live at the gatehouse until about 1960 and then moved to Pennant Hills Rd in Parramatta.
The cottage is a two-storey Gothic style brick structure stuccoed and painted to represent standard 610 x 305mm stone jointing.
The trust meeting room was entered from a separate lobby centrally located in the symmetrical eastern façade.
A feature of the external joinery work is the repetitive use of stop chamfers on beams, posts and struts.
The building was designed as a gate keepers cottage with a separate room set aside for the use of the Parramatta Park Trust.
The historic visual relationship between the cottage and the town centre created by the vista along Macquarie Street is of cultural significance.
As a group, the Parramatta Park gatehouses are of state significance for their archaeological, architectural, social and landscape values.
