- Everglades – A 1930s Mountain Retreat
Situated on one of the highest points of the now World Heritage listed greater Blue Mountains, Leura in the 1930s was just starting to come into its own as a Blue Mountains hill station… more
- Architect Paul Sorensen
Born in Copenhagen, Paul Sorensen’s early training was at the Danish Horscholm Plantescole, where he worked under the highly respected horticulturalist, Lars Nielsen… more
- Original owner - Henri Van De Velde
Henri Van de Velde was born in Brussels. He spent many childhood years in Australia – his father was Belgian Vice-Consul in Australia from 1891 to 1894 – and formed a lasting bond which brought him back to settle as a young adult… more
- Everglades in the 1930s
Unlike many significant gardens of the era, Everglades has survived the threat of sub-division and the ravages of time. However by the time it was acquired by the National Trust in 1962, 15 years after the death of Henri Van de Velde, it was wildly overgrown… more
- The Site and its Challenges
The site purchased by Henri Van de Velde in 1932 had been left to run wild since 1910, when Mrs Stonier’s eight acres of orchard were ravaged by bushfire. The site sloped steeply, with a one in two gradient in places… more
- Design Concept - Modernist Influences
The creation of the gardens at Everglades was an extraordinary endeavour of its time, in the execution of a vision which can certainly be regarded as the equivalent of some of the most celebrated examples of contemporaneous European and English garden design… more
- A Mix of Exotics, Natives and a Sensitivity to Site
Although Sorensen and Van de Velde incorporated modernist influences into the construction of the gardens, Sorensen was also a skilled horticulturalist who celebrated the impact of plants, while bringing a singularly Australian character to Everglades in his careful blend between formal gardens and bushland, and the integration of vistas… more
- Fashionable Innovation
In its design, construction, interior finishes and furniture, Everglades House was a bold new statement in Australian domestic architecture. Where contemporaneous retreats for the wealthy – including those for whom Sorensen had already designed gardens -typically favoured a softer ‘Arts and Crafts’, or Old English approach, Everglades House embodied Functionalism at its most comfortable – efficient, streamlined and full of the ‘mod cons’ of the time… more
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