Susannah Place Museum
SUSANNAH PLACE MUSEUM - WORKING CLASS IN THE ROCKS
Built in 1844, Susannah Place Museum is a small row of brick and sandstone terraces consisting of four houses, including a corner shop. The museum demonstrates the way these houses were lived in from the mid-1840s until present day. The recreated turn-of-the-century shop is fully operational and sells goods from the era.
The Rocks in the 19th century was the oldest and most heavily populated urban community in Australia. Edward and Mary Riley, the first owners of Susannah Place, occupied one of the terraces while renting the other three for 26 pounds per year to working class tenants - artisans and labourers.
The modest interiors and rear yards of Susannah Place Museum with their water closets, external bathrooms and laundries illustrate the restrictions of 19th century inner city life. The remaining historic streetscape - the sandstone steps, pubs and terraces, together with the recorded stories of those who have lived there, testified to the richness of community life.
In line with the conservation philosophy for Susannah Place Museum many of the original fabrics and finishes have been left untouched revealing much about the lives of past residents whose voices might otherwise be silent. In one, a single wall has layer upon layer of wallpaper peeling and gently curling. Paint on walls in other terraces, cracked and peeling through the ravages of age, sunlight and damp, hint at lost colour schemes and the tastes of successive landlords and tenants.
Susannah Place Museum offers visitors a rare opportunity to reconstruct the patterns of domestic working class life within the restored Rocks neighbourhood from 1844-1989.
The Shop is recreated in the retail style of the early 20th century with jars of lollies on the counter, straw brooms, and brown paper wrapping and is very popular with tourists and locals alike.
Media inquiries: T 02 8239 2288
Christine Pace Publicity Assistant
christinep@hht.net.au
Ruth Williams Media Relations Manager
