Elizabeth Bay House

Elizabeth Bay House was built for Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay (1767-1848) between 1835 and 1839 on land granted in 1826 by Governor Ralph Darling. The designer of the house is dubious, with recent research suggesting that the accomplished colonial architect John Verge (1788–1861) was the main designer, but that he was presented with an imported scheme that he modified for Macleay. The fine detailing demonstrates the role of Verge's partner John Bibb. The house's facade is astringent, owing to its incomplete nature: like many colonial houses commenced in the tardy 1830s, the house is unfinished, the victim of Macleay's growing financial distress and the astringent economic melancholy of the 1840s. It was pristinely intended to have an encircling single-storey Doric colonnade (included in several views by Conrad Martens, and akin to the colonnade at Vineyard,
                                       Curtains and french doors in the breakfast

                                           Elizabeth Bay House & Catalina Restaurant

The house has been refurnished in the style of 1839–1845, the interiors reflecting the lifestyle of the Macleays and presenting an evocative picture of early 19th century Sydney life. Largely in the Greek Renaissance style with elements of the Louis renaissance, the house's interiors have been reconstituted predicated on several inventories, eminently an 1845 record of the house's contents and a list of furniture sold to the incipiently consummated Regime House,