The Long House, Morris Avenue, Wahroonga
Extracts from the autobiography ‘My Life of Love and Truth’
In 1960, Betty and I and the children moved into a new bungalow we’d built at Wahroonga, one of Sydney’s lovely northern suburbs featuring a profusion of trees, parks and natural forest. The home was designed for us by the architect Harry Seidler, his last private house before he went on to establish an international reputation…
In 1963 I was weeding the lawn in a deep state of contemplation when a voice spoke inside my head. ‘You are going away’, it said. I knew this meant I was to leave my home and family. I was astonished. I remember as I crouched there in the garden, looking up at the front of our modern, cream-brick bungalow with its large expanse of plate glass, sandstone patio, sandstone island fireplace and other small touches of luxury, replying ‘It’s impossible…
But leave the comfort and convenience he did.
The house is currently on the market for $1.45 million and was featured in the property pages of The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) November 22 2015. An extract from the article by noted property journalist Jonathan Chancellor follows:
BARRY IS LONG GONE BUT HARRY LIVES ON
A modest late 1950s Harry Seidler-designed home has hit the market on Sydney’s upper north shore at Wahroonga.
The home was designed for the then journalist, turned spiritualist [spiritual teacher] Barry Long and his wife Betty when the couple, with two children, were in their early 30s. Long, was the last editor of the Truth and became the first editor of the Sunday Mirror during Ezra Norton’s ownership, and was later press secretary to the leader of the opposition, Robert Askin. But Barry Long quit Sydney on his spiritual journey, selling the house in 1965 after telling his wife at the breakfast table one Sunday morning he was off to India.
Alex Mintorn and Dominic Maxwell of McGrath Pymble have suggested the fourth owner will need to pay $1.45 million plus to secure the home at its December 12 auction. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-level house on a 898 sqm block comes with a striking original internal feature, the sandstone fireplace. Agent Alex Mintorn described it has having a “magic feel, especially in the evening”.
There are plans drawn to extend the Morris Avenue home by Harry Seidler & Associates office veteran Greg Holman. Seidler was considered to be one of the leading exponents of modernism’s methodology in Australia before he died in 2006. He designed more than 180 buildings, including Blues Point Tower in 1961, courting controversy throughout his long career as he regularly challenged planning authorities and the planning system in Sydney.
This article was extracted from the tumblr barrylongbulletin blog
Immortality