Historical character home in Somerton Park
This heritage listed art deco-style home is full of character and boasts the luxury of space only a stone’s throw from the Somerton Esplanade.
When this 1950 home was listed in 2000, there was nothing to go off but a drawing in the newspaper’s real estate listing.
Joyce Woody, who was born in Texas and grew up in landlocked Arizona, didn’t have much interest in moving from the eastern suburbs to the coast.
But she thought she would indulge her husband, who grew up in Glenelg, and the couple never turned back.
“My husband was coming in from a flight from Hong Kong for business, and I just thought that I would be cooperative and look at something down at the bay,” says Joyce, who has been retired since 2005.
“And as soon as we walked in the door we thought, ‘We can work with this’.
“It has such a presence, and yet it is so warm and inviting.”
In 2005, the couple engaged architect Rob Williams – founder of what is now known as Williams Burton Leopardi – to renovate and extend the heritage-listed home that was originally built by architect Ronald Golding in 1950.
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“We knew we wanted to renovate, but it just took us time to get the feel of the house and what we wanted to do,” Joyce says.
“The vision was to make the extension look like it was a part of the original plan.
“The architects were able to make sure everything is seamless.”
With the extension, they added a mud room, a butler’s pantry and a laundry chute which Joyce says are all American-inspired features that, while they may be the norm these days, weren’t all that common in the early 2000s.
The home also features four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two living areas, a four-car garage, an extensive outdoor alfresco and a lap pool on more than 1100 square metres and only 200 metres from the esplanade.
The home’s character and art deco qualities are defined by its architectural curves and striking stonework, for which Ronald Golding was known.
Joyce says, in addition to the uniquely striking design of the home, she fell in love with the luxury of space and natural light.
“The stonework is really the masterpiece of the house, outside and in, and then everything else just tries to complement that,” she says.
“It’s just such a lovely pairing with all of the round shapes and forms.”
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Adding to the art deco aesthetic, Joyce was lucky enough to stumble upon one of the chandeliers from the Regent Arcade, after it had been upgraded, at a local antique store.
The iconic light fixture – one of the two smaller chandeliers from the Regent Theatre before it was renovated into the Arcade in the 1960s – now hangs from Joyce’s entranceway at the top of the grand stone-clad stairs.
Over the nearly three decades that Joyce has lived at 4 Bickford Terrace, it has become the ultimate entertaining home and has always had an open-door policy.
Joyce and her husband raised their daughter, son and foster son here and over the years they have billeted students and cared for more than 30 newborn foster babies.
They have hosted events on the front lawn for the Tour Down Under, and events out by the pool for teams of students from Sacred Heart.
The home has also, through Joyce’s dedication over the years, come to be known as the Halloween house.
“I think one of our highest numbers was around 800 trick or treaters a year or two ago,” she says.
“The house just lends itself to a bit of fun.”
Joyce is now looking to downsize, and she says all of the celebrations, milestones and memories they have created over the years are what she will miss the most.
“It’s just been such a wonderful home.”
The sale of 4 Bickford Terrace, Somerton Park, is being handled by Simon Noakes and Alicia Nickolas of Noakes Nickolas.
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