Susannah Place

Located in The Rocks, Sydney's oldest neighborhood, the four humble terrace houses that make up Susannah Place were built in 1844 by Irish immigrants. For over 150 years, the row housed more than 100 working class families ranging from the families of Greek shopkeepers to Norwegian sailors. 

Having survived a bubonic plague outbreak, the resulting slum clearances, and the threat of gentrification, Susannah Place remained intact and relatively unchanged. In 1987, the New South Wales Historic Houses Trust in collaboration with the Sydney Cove Authority, began conservation work on the terrace. After the last residents moved out in 1990, major remedial work was undertaken in 1992, after which the properties were handed over to the trust, who subsequently converted the terrace houses into a museum.

Unlike many modern heritage sites which are renovated to gleaming levels of polish, the Susannah Place Museum has peeled back the layers of the different houses, displaying them as snapshots in time from multiple distinct eras. Faded wallpaper and stripped paint provide an authentic backdrop, while donated items from previous tenants provide decoration, all giving insights into the living conditions of then-residents.

Number 58 remains unchanged from when the last resident departed in 1974. Number 60's kitchen recreates scenes from the 1930s, based off memories from the grandchildren of the then-tenant. The recreation of the corner shop at 64 Susannah Place, which operated continuously from 1844 to 1935, has been set in the 1910s-1920s, using oral histories from the shopkeepers' son, with period appropriate items stocked on the shelves.

Now one of the few 18th century structures remaining in The Rocks,  Susannah Place's value lies not just with the antiquity of being the oldest standing working class homes in Sydney. Equally historically valuable are the evolutions and adaptations made by residents over the years, on show in each of the 4 houses. Testament to letting history and its imperfections tell the story.