The Harvard apartments, 2 Kellett Way, Kings Cross, area are a hidden gem.

Tucked away from the hum and thrum of the main Kings Cross thoroughfare they sit in the fulcrum of their corner block.

Harvard is a famous American University founded almost 400 years ago in 1636. In the 1930s it pledged to reinvigorate its creative scholarship and pre-eminence among research institutions. It is often synonymous with the 1930s and “The Great Gatsby” era.

Interestingly, the Harvard apartments were built in the same era, circa 1935, by architects, Summerhayes Son and Allsopp, 29 Bligh Street, Sydney.

Charles Robert Summerhayes (1860-1948) was a prominent local Alderman, as they were then known, and Mayor of Ryde in 1911-12 and again in 1922. He was also a significant  local architect and builder in the Eastwood area.

He designed Bombara Villa, (1897, Stanmore, named after his original home and birthplace in Mudgee, country NSW; Womerah house, Ryde, (1905), his own family home; terrace houses in Gibbes Street, Newtown; St. Phillip’s church, Eastwood (1907); the Summerhayes group of shops (1920), Ryde; the Ryde Park rotunda (1934) and Eastwood Park grandstand (1933), amongst others.

Harvard’s stylish Art Déco chic incorporates features including an attractive exterior frieze with chevron shapes and a design emphasis on verticality. Remnant interior architraves and pelmets are also Art Déco inspired.

NSW Heritage notes that “The late twentieth century saw increasing property prices in the Potts Point area and a revived interest in the 1920s and 1930s Art Déco buildings.”

“The Kings Cross / Potts Point precinct is listed on the Australian Heritage Commission Register because it is the only place in Australia with Art Déco development of such a scale in such a high concentration.”

By Andrew Woodhouse, Heritage Solutions