of Sydney. On 18 August 1911 the title to 3 roods 7 perches of the land was transferred to master plumber William Henry Watson of St Peters, who in turn transferred it to plumber Francis Watson of Blakehurst on 28 October 1919. Francis Watson sold the land to Percy Allan, licensee of the Pymble Hotel, during the first quarter of 1929. Allan subdivided it into three allotments and offered it for sale at the beginning of the 1940s. The first sale was to Marrickville bricklayer Thomas Tyson Dixon and his wife Ellen. Transfer of title took place on 26 May 1941. The Dixons sold the land to Ryde electrician John McBride in February 1944. McBride then sold it to master mariner William Obide Lewis Wilding and his wife Agnes, who lived in Hurstville, in July 1946. They, in turn, sold the land to master tanner James Thomas Dale of Maroubra in May 1949; he sold it to Bankstown company director Herbert George Palmer in July 1950. Palmer sold the land to David and Marjorie Thurlow with the transfer of title taking place on 17 September 1951. Design of Thurlow House David and Marjorie Thurlow engaged Harry Seidler to design their new home on the land. Harry Seidler & Associates Seidler (1923–2006) was born in Vienna, Austria. In 1938 he moved to England to escape the Nazi occupation of Austria. He studied Building at the Cambridge Shire Technical School but was interned in 1940 and eventually shipped to Canada. In Canada, he was permitted to study architecture at the University of Manitoba. He graduated with first class honours in 1944 and the following year won a scholarship allowing him to attend the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he studied under architect Walter Gropius, formerly Director of the Bauhaus in Germany. Seidler then studied at the experimental and short-lived Black Mountain College summer school in 1946 under another former Bauhaus teacher, Josef Albers. Between September 1946 and March 1948 Seidler worked as architect Marcel Breuer's chief assistant. Breuer, who had been educated at the Bauhaus and then became master of its carpentry shop, had also been Gropius' professional partner during the 1930s. Seidler left America to travel to Australia, spending some time in Rio de Janeiro to work with the prominent architect Oscar Niemeyer. He arrived in Sydney during July 1948, having travelled at the instigation of his parents. They had