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History

The Mount Victoria Village nestled at the top of the Blue Mountains has an Urban Heritage listing, ensuring its architectural authenticity as a 19th Century Village. Enjoy a stroll through the quaint shops in the town or use the central location to visit the "Mounts", the caves or the many lookouts. Walking tracks abound for all standards.

Built in 1876 by John R Fairfax, founder of The Sydney Morning Herald, as a mountain retreat. In short a weekender though of grand proportions designed by architect/builder Alexander Dean of Manly in Sydney. It was originally situated on about 13 acres, which was about half of the village of Mount Victoria. John Fairfax died the following year and his two sons leased the house out until 1887. One of the tenants was Mr. Aiken, the British educator, commissioned by the eastern states to establish a public school curriculum. He opened a private boarding school. This was not a success and closed within a few years.

Mr. G. H. Cooper purchased the house furnished and after obtaining an hotel license opened Blue Mountains Manor House Hotel the Easter week of 1887. Many alterations occurred over the next eight years in the process of creating a tourist hotel but the beauty of the house remains with the Fairfax monogram still gracing the entrance and front of the main house. The name was changed to Cooper's Grand Hotel and remained so until 1966.

The hotel was inherited by the Cooper family and managed over the years mainly by his son-in-law and daughter and Mr. & Mrs. Hudson until the late 1930's.

During this time the full hotel license was relinquished. Rumour has it that Mrs. Hudson had become a prohibitionist.

Mrs. Ward, Cooper's granddaughter, was the proprietor from the late 1930's until the mid 1960's. She was noted as a very strong willed lady and did not believe in solicitors and such. This was to prove her undoing in that she entered into a contract to sell the property on a delayed settlement and never received payment at all. The agent involved in the contract sold the property to a religious body who had no knowledge of the "shady" deal and they then sold it to another religious sect, The Logos Foundation.

The property was broken up and houses built around the rear of it. The foundation housed a commune sort of affair with about 70 people living permanently. During this time the house was called Westwood Lodge and was listed by the National Trust as being a prime example of "Victorian Italianate". The Logos Foundation moved to Toowoomba in the mid 1980's and sold the property to the Patterson family in 1988.

The name was changed back to The Grand and was operated as a guesthouse until purchased by Colin and Annette Lenton in July 1991.

The reputation of the house had deteriorated and they went full circle in renaming the property The Manor House as originally stated by the Fairfax family. In keeping with the importance of the property in this World Heritage area it is now known as Blue Mountains Manor House.

They have owned, operated and constantly renovated the property from then until the current time. In a serious attempt to retain all the charm of the historic country retreat they have nevertheless introduced the comforts of modern living such as ensuites, central heating, large indoor spa and billiards. They have re-introduced a garden and croquet lawn that had sadly disappeared under a car park.

Luckily it still retains it's grand stance on the hill with more than 2 acres of grounds.