Glenlee House

Glenlee House is a small 18th-century house that was remodelled and enlarged in 1822 by Robert Lugar, although it was not completed exactly as his plans indicated. Some demolition work was carried out in the 1950s, primarily affecting the south and east elevations, but the main portion of Lugar's design remains.

The house is two storeys high and currently has a roughcast exterior with painted, polished raised margins and rusticated quoins. Most ground-floor windows are tripartite (three-part) and feature consoled cornices. First-floor windows are single-light, with some also having consoled cornices. The windows have plate glass or four-pane glazing.

The west (entrance) elevation is three bays wide, with a taller, prominent central bay. A projecting single-storey porch features a hood-moulded round-arched doorway, a glazed fanlight, and double-leaf panelled doors. Demolition of part of the central block of the south elevation has created an exaggerated U-plan with taller advanced pavilions and a deeply recessed three-bay central block.

The north and east elevations are asymmetrical, with one and two-storey projections. A canted oriel window is located on the north side at the first floor, supported by stone corbels. The house has hipped slate roofs, tall octagonal chimney stacks often arranged in linked groups, and octagonal cans.

The interior of the dining and drawing rooms was redecorated around 1860 with an anthemion and honeysuckle plaster cornice and an egg and dart frieze. An Ionic screen in the dining room supports a stencilled and painted frieze, and the door tympani feature similar detailing. A round-arched black marble chimneypiece is also present. The drawing room has elaborate French Rococo style plasterwork and panelling, as well as original fireplace and pelmet boards.

The house was not completed as shown on Lugar’s 1823 plan; a large projecting bow window to the west, intended to contain a bow-ended drawing room, was never built. The original roofline had deeply overhanging eaves with timber brackets, but the present roofline likely dates from the 1860s. Glenlee House is part of the larger Glenlee Park B Group. Details of Robert Lugar’s design are illustrated in his Villa Architecture, 1823, plates 30-1.