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Chalet Fontenelle was designed in 1898 by Edward Jeaffreson Jackson (List of Australian architects) as the mountain retreat for Rev. Stephen H. Childe, the rector of St Thomas' Anglican Church, North Sydney.

Stephen Childe was born in London in 1844 and served in parishes in London before migrating to Australia. He had the longest ministry of any minister at St Thomas, serving there from 1879 to 1913. While at St Thomas' he was responsible for the enlargement of the church, the organ, a new rectory and a new assistant's house. He is credited with developing the choir and music at the church. His ministry at St Thomas was not always happy as he was criticized by some for his theological views. (Walker, What God Has Done)

As soon as Childe arrived at St Thomas in 1879, his first wife died, leaving him with five small children to maintain. In 1886 Childe married again, to a barrister's daughter, Harriet Gordon: although the marriage was opposed by Harriet's parents. she received a substantial dowry and it was her money and her inclination that led to the acquisition of the prime 4-acre site in Wentworth Falls where Chalet Fontenelle was built, (Green, Prehistorian: a Biography of V. Gordon Childe, 4-5)

Jeaffreson Jackson, who designed Chalet Fontenelle, was born in 1862 in London and trained as an architect in England attending the Royal Academy School of Architecture. Articled to William West-Neve he developed an arts and crafts aesthetic. In 1884 he sailed to Australia where he began work with the Colonial Architect's Branch of New South Wales before establishing his own practice between 1885 and 1888. (Dudman, Two Houses by E. Jeaffreson Jackson)

Jackson was well known to the Childes as he was a church-warden at St Thomas. He had also designed a new rectory for St Thomas when he was asked to design a mountain retreat for Childe. (Dudman, Two Houses by E. Jeaffreson Jackson)

Stephen and Harriet Childe had two sons, but one died in infancy. The surviving child, Vere Gordon Childe (named after his maternal family), was born in 1892 and as a small boy revelled in the Wentworth Falls country retreat. The family spent more and more time in the Mountains, although the Reverend Stephen Childe was not only rector but also, from 1901 to 1906, Rural Dean of North Sydney. Even those well disposed to the rector commented that 'He was a great "Rural'' Dean - so rural that he almost lived in the rural surroundings of Wentworth Falls. He was there more often, they said, than at St. Thomas.' (Green, Prehistorian, 7)

Harriet Childe died in 1910, however, and her son Gordon thereafter spent much less time at Wentworth Falls or with his father.

Gordon Childe was a brilliant student at the University of Sydney from 1911 to 1914, graduating with first-class honours in Latin, Greek and Philosophy and the University Medal in Classics. He went on to have a stormy political life and an internationally renowned career in Britain as a prehistoric archaeologist, after studying at Oxford from 1914 to 1917, returning to Australia until 1921, when he began his archaeological career abroad in earnest. (Green, Prehistorian, 9-10)

Just before Gordon left the University of Sydney his father retired from St Thomas and moved permanently to Chalet Fontenelle in 1913 (Green, Prehistorian, 8). Stephen Childe and his third wife, Monica Gardiner, turned Chalet Fontenelle into a guest house from at least 1915 to 1917, but sold the property in the early 1920s and moved to Coronel, a fine new house in Blaxland Road. (Silvey, Happy Days, 85, 100; Dudman, Two Houses by E. Jeaffreson Jackson)

After passing through numerous hands, Chalet Fontenelle was sold in 1943 to Colin MacLaurin (who became Head Of Semitic Studies at the University of Sydney) and was renamed Glenhurst. MacLaurin and his mother had founded the MacLaurin Church of England School at Leura in 1949. They opened Glenhurst to boarders from that school in 1952. The school is now located on the Great Western Highway and has been reincarnated as the Blue Mountains Grammar School. (Silvey, Happy Days, 85-86; Dudman, Two Houses by E. Jeaffreson Jackson)

By 1968 it was known as Whispering Pines Resort. (Croft & Assoc., VVF 038)

At some time in the later twentieth century, the house was divided into 12 flats- It fell into disrepair, the fine garden of the Childes became totally overgrown and by 1991 the property was occupied by vagrants. (SiIvey, Happy Days, 86; Dudman, Two Houses by E. Jeaffreson Jackson) It was bought in 1991 by the present owners who remodelled the interior, created a new garden. retaining some old plantings, and opened the property with its 1.6 hectares of grounds as a bed and breakfast.

General Reference

NSW Office of Environment and Heritage: Whispering Pines and Grounds http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_04_2.cfm?itemid=1170825