In the early 1850s, Robert Forsyth Macgeorge bought land in the area and built a house, naming the estate Urrbrae after the village Haugh of Urr in Scotland; the word brae refers to a hillside, especially near a river or creek.

[4] Urrbrae House is a two-storey, bluestone mansion located on Walter Young Avenue, on the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide.

[6] Not the suburb's namesake, the current house was actually completed in 1891 by the philanthropist Peter Waite, replacing the original single-storey home of Robert MacGeorge, which was for many years rented by Edward Stirling Snr.

After Peter and Matilda's death, the house was bequeathed to the University of Adelaide, being handed over in February 1923 by the couple's two daughters.

[10] On Cross Road, in the suburb's north, lies the Roman Catholic monastery of St Paul's Retreat.