On Sydney’s Lower North Shore, Mosman’s Morella mansion has become the stuff of folklore. Occupying an exclusive slice of harbourside real estate on the suburb’s Morella road, the property was once the beloved home of the well-known Parers family, who regularly entertained Sydney’s most elite (including a rumoured Prime Minister or two) throughout the 1930s and 40s.
It was during this time that the property also featured in a 1943 issue of Home Beautiful, with the original images and article capturing a unique time in the home’s — and Australia’s — history.
Sadly, the once-grand home has now been left empty for nearly half a century. Favoured by squatters and daring teenagers, rumours of family disputes, hauntings and even a curse have seen the property make a name for itself both locally and on social media, with TikTok and Youtube accounts such as Abandoned Oz giving fascinated viewers video tours of the derelict estate.
However, Morella’s new era is fast approaching, with the property finally selling for $10 million, according to Domain. While the new owners reportedly have plans for a flash new property, the plans will reportedly respect the original site as well.
Before the property enters its next exciting era, let’s take a look back at its impressive past in Home Beautiful.
Morella mansion in Home Beautiful magazine
When Home Beautiful visited Morella mansion, it was owned by Leo Parer, his wife Helena and their three children. Leo reportedly paid paid £500 for the property in 1936 before enlisting the help of architect Eric Nicolls from Walker Burley Griffins for a redesign three years later.
The 1943 article discusses the lasting impact of late Australian architect Burley Griffin on Australian architecture and the property itself. When describing the home’s interior, Home Beautiful’s Norah Cooper wrote that the front door isn’t connected to a porch or portico, but instead “its only emphasis being a heavy flat stone lintel projecting from the wall immediately above”.
Likewise, she wrote that the property’s flat roof is a distinctly Burley Griffin feature.
The article also focuses on the property’s Greek-style Corinthian columns, with Cooper writing that “an immense circular loggia is built out from the central hall facing the water. Its huge Corinthian pillars support an equally huge open sun deck from from the bedroom above.”
The most interesting part of the article is perhaps not even the home itself, but its fascinating depiction of a period in Australian history.
“Mrs Parker, like lots of other Australian wives and mothers whose homes are on Sydney Harbour, has simply refused to be evacuated,” Cooper writes of the wartime period.
However, the family’s 200-year-old Spanish mahogany dining room set was said to be packed away “safely out of reach of any possible enemy action that may make that portion of Sydney’s soil its target”.
The war also impacted the property itself, with Cooper writing that “the garden will not be finished properly till the war is over”.
Likewise, plans for a ballroom were to be finalised after the war, “in time for the children who will then be grown up”.
We’re excited to see what Morella’s next era looks like.
This article originally appeared on Home Beautiful and is republished here with permission.
