Villa Alba is a grand old mansion in Kew. It is not in the National Trust (which has properties like Rippon Lea, Como House and Labassa) but operates as a museum by a non profit organisation Villa Alba Museum Inc. Admission fees are $15 per adult when the museum is open to the public on the first Sunday of each month.
Compared to some of the other grand old mansions mentioned above, I think Villa Alba has undergone more restoration works and is better preserved. I love the wall paintings, rosettes, ornate fireplaces. Even the floors were decorated with fancy parquetry work. It is worth the admission fees to visit this mansion. You'll also be helping preserve the history and beauty of the mansion for future generations.
The story of Villa Alba starts with Anna Maria McEvoy and William Greenlaw, or rather James McEvoy who was Anna Maria's father. A wealthy pastoralist, he gifted the land on which Villa Alba stands to his only daughter upon her marriage to William. The land was part of his own estate, called Studley House. And so, he became their neighbour, maybe to keep an eye over his new son in law, making sure he treats Anna Maria well? I think he was on to something...
You see, William Greenlaw was an ambitious Scottish lad who migrated to Australia during the gold rush period, aged 22. He worked his way up to General Manager in Colonial Bank of Australia within 15 years (impressive!) but then he like many others, approved some bad loans in speculative land banks out in Fern Tree Gully (I could've told him it was too risky) which saw him lost everything and he died a few years after the banking crisis. He wasn't the only casualty, there were many financial institutions that went bust because it was an industry wide crisis. But because he spent a great deal of money already on the building and renovation of Alba Villa, he didn't have the funds to stump up his bank I suppose and he took it extra hard.
Anna Maria became a single mom with 6 kids after his death. By then the kids would have all grown up, in their 20's but still... it wouldn't have been easy. The house was safe at least, because Anna Maria's dad had the foresight (or maybe he didn't really trust William?) to keep in trust for Anna Maria, so the liquidators couldn't touch it. It was sold 13 years after it was built to a hospital which whitewashed all the beautiful paintings on the wall and used it as a nurses' dorm.
The house was built and decorated in 1882-1884. It was reportedly designed by William himself who wanted to build a nice place for his wife, and decorated by some of his mates the Paterson brothers from his homeland Scotland. In the sunroom, one can see a painting of Edinburgh landscape. The house is in comparatively good condition, probably because they didn't live in it for long.
I really enjoyed our visit to Villa Alba. If you are unable to visit, there is a free virtual tour of the house on their website, and invaluable information about the story of the house on this website: https://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/volume_8_number_2/papers/villa_alba#_edn57
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