Mont Clair is a delightfully stylish Art Deco seven-level apartment block built in 1938 at 347 Liverpool Street Darlinghurst.

Apartment 36 is for sale through Greg McKinley and Penny Timothy  Real Estate For Sale – 36/347 Liverpool Street – Darlinghurst , NSW

Its blonde brickwork is a master class in bricklaying, an art which is now largely lost.

At the entrance bricks are laid in a block pattern, they are freckled on upper levels, curved at the centre of the facade and create a finial in the centre leading up to the base of the base of the flagpole on the top floor.

Mont Clair oozes a stylish charm with its chrome front door handles, metal window frames, entrance foyer terrazzo stairs, metal balustrades, cloud-shaped entrance awning, curved stair balustrade, all original Art Deco design features. The glass bricks faithfully replace the originals.

The interior of apartment 36 features original bathroom fittings in green and cream, popular at the time, elegant parquet flooring with contrasting boarder inlays and ribbed skirting boards.

The site was part of an original land grant to a solicitor, William Black in 1853 and was possibly part of an original windmill site. In 1885 the site was vacant and in 1936 was purchased by Nathaniel Freeman. Freeman was the managing director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pty Ltd from 1925 and during the early 1940s was president of the Motion Picture Distributors Association and a member of the Department of Information’s National Film Council. It was designed in 1937 by Esmond B Wilshire and Hodges using reinforced concrete. The same firm also designed the Ophthalmic Hospital nearby in Commonwealth Street, Lessey’s Garage in Riley Street, the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club and an aircraft hangar at Kingsford airport, among other buildings.

Mont Clair was originally serviced apartments and during World War II (1939-45) was taken over by American servicemen.

It was ultra-modern for its time and favourably reported in The Modern Flat magazine as “clear cut, modern, efficient and attractive … the main brickwork being a russet biscuit tone, which is a relief … each unit comes with a refrigerator, hot water service and refuse destructor, direct inter-house communications with the manager’s office and telephone, controlled by the general switchboard operator.”

The built-in kitchen fridge, rooftop garden and the flagpole were design features noted in Building magazine of August 1938 as well as the units’ designed-in eating nook.

This landmark building and Art Deco gem remains remarkably intact with the original coal bunker for storing coal for heating, original lifts, original foyer light fittings, concierge desk and switchboard still remaining.

Unsurprisingly it is heritage-listed by the City of Sydney Council, the 20^th Century Heritage Society, the Art Deco Society of NSW and the Australian Institute of Architects Register of 20^th Century buildings.

By Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions