George Wigram Allen married Marian Clapham Boyce of Rothwell Lodge in 1851. In 1855 they moved from their city address in Elizabeth Street to newly built Lynwood adjacent to Marian’s former home. They lived there for about 14 years before moving to Strathmore and later to Toxteth Park.
The wood-shingled three-storey house, reached via a driveway entry from both Glebe Point Road and Ferry Road, had six attic bedrooms to accommodate the growing family (Marian Allen eventually had 11 live births). There were views as far as the Observatory from verandahs featuring cast-iron posts and railings. Cast iron had started to be imported by this time and Lynwood’s was a popular pattern which remained available for many years.
George Wigram Allen played an important part in the development of Sydney. His great wealth was derived from renting his large property holdings. He was Glebe’s first mayor in 1859 and re-elected to Council until 1877. He was MLA for Glebe and sometime Speaker between 1869 and 1882.
After the Allens moved to Strathmore, Lynwood was rented to wholesale grocer David Mitchell for six years before he purchased Kayuga on Pyrmont Bridge Road, a house he renamed Jarocin after his birthplace in Prussia. Jarocin was demolished in 1911 but its name is recalled by Jarocin Avenue and Mitchell’s own by Mitchell Terrace which he built at 84-90 Pyrmont Bridge Road.
By the early 1900s Lynwood was used on a commercial basis and by 1916 various outbuildings had been added. The house was knocked down some time in the 1940s as Molloys Transport expanded. The whole site has since been demolished. A complex of apartments and townhouses was built at the end of Lombard Street in the 1990s.
