The 1870 Rate Books list John Kelly as the owner, and describe the house as having '6 rooms bathroom 2 kitchens servants room and shed'. Thereafter it is listed simply as 8 rooms. In 1873 William Sydney Gibbons appears for the first time as the owner. He lived there with his family until his death in 1917. Gibbons was an analyst, and for many years, the government analyst.