Staff and pupils of Woodford Academy c1910

John Fraser McManamey was Rector of Cooerwull Academy at Bowenfels, N.S.W., from 1903. When the lease of the Cooerwull Academy was not renewed by the Council of St. Andrew’s College, Sydney, in 1906, John McManamey bought Woodford House, Woodford, N.S.W., and opened it as the Woodford Academy in January 1907.

 

One of the previous owners, Mark Henry Long, chemist and druggist, used Woodford House as a hospital in the 1860’s.

 

John McManamey continued as Rector in his new capacity at the Woodford Academy, until it was forced to close on 28 August 1936 due to the adverse effects of the Depression.

 

In 1892 John McManamey had married Henrietta Nielson and they had two daughters, Gertrude (b.1896) and Jessie Elizabeth McManamey.

 

Gertrude McManamey transferred the Woodford Academy to the National Trust of Australia in 1980 in return for life tenancy of the refurbished section of the building. The Woodford Academy has the distinction of being the oldest building on the Blue Mountains.

www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/properties/woodford/default.asp

 

Format: B&W photograph

 

Repository: Blue Mountains Library - library.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/

 

Part of: Local Studies Collection PF1028

 

Provenance: Isobel Bowden

 

 

 

Done