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Grace Avenue
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StreetGrace AvenueSuburbBeecroftDetailsIn 1905 Samuel and Grace Oxley bought an 18 and a half acre orchard stretching from Cardinal Avenue to Thompson's Corner. They had four children - Samuel, Alice, Myrtle and Winifred. Grace Avenue was constructed in the early 1950s at a cost of about 8000 pounds. Alice Oxley was the developer and named it in honour of her mother who died in 1936.
'Miss Alice Oxley developed the plan to create a residential estate out of her family land holdings at Thompson's Corner at the end of the 1940s. There had been little development throughout the district for the previous ten years because of World War II. Material to build homes and the money supply was restricted.
The advice given to Miss Oxley was to not only have plans drawn of the road and the various residential blocks but to build homes on selected sites to guarantee the supply of gas, electricity and water. Mr Geoff Smith (the younger) was a contract builder who regularly crossed the Oxley acres apparently going from his home to building sites in Bishop Avenue area. Mr Smith often talked with Miss Oxley and said one day "I would like to get out on my own and build homes". Discussions took place with Miss Oxley and Mr Smith about the plans to create the Oxley subdivision. An architect was commissioned to design suitable residences and soon Geoff Smith was at work erecting the first home ultimately completing twenty homes on the property. The street dividing the Oxley subdivision came to be named Grace Avenue since the land was registered in the name of the late Mrs Grace Selina Oxley, mother of Miss Alice Oxley.
After a successful year of construction and sales on the estate Geoff Smith said to Miss Oxley "I think you and I know enough about building and design of homes to dispense with an architect". For the next ten years the Oxley/Smith combination designed and built residential homes in the Hills District'. Alice Oxley 1994
SourcePatrick, Trevor G. 1994, Street Names of Pennant Hills and Surrounding Suburbs of Beecroft, Cheltenham, Cherrybrook, Thornleigh, Westleigh, and West Pennant Hills, Silicon Quill, Hornsby, p.33.Map[1]
'Miss Alice Oxley developed the plan to create a residential estate out of her family land holdings at Thompson's Corner at the end of the 1940s. There had been little development throughout the district for the previous ten years because of World War II. Material to build homes and the money supply was restricted.
The advice given to Miss Oxley was to not only have plans drawn of the road and the various residential blocks but to build homes on selected sites to guarantee the supply of gas, electricity and water. Mr Geoff Smith (the younger) was a contract builder who regularly crossed the Oxley acres apparently going from his home to building sites in Bishop Avenue area. Mr Smith often talked with Miss Oxley and said one day "I would like to get out on my own and build homes". Discussions took place with Miss Oxley and Mr Smith about the plans to create the Oxley subdivision. An architect was commissioned to design suitable residences and soon Geoff Smith was at work erecting the first home ultimately completing twenty homes on the property. The street dividing the Oxley subdivision came to be named Grace Avenue since the land was registered in the name of the late Mrs Grace Selina Oxley, mother of Miss Alice Oxley.
After a successful year of construction and sales on the estate Geoff Smith said to Miss Oxley "I think you and I know enough about building and design of homes to dispense with an architect". For the next ten years the Oxley/Smith combination designed and built residential homes in the Hills District'. Alice Oxley 1994
SourcePatrick, Trevor G. 1994, Street Names of Pennant Hills and Surrounding Suburbs of Beecroft, Cheltenham, Cherrybrook, Thornleigh, Westleigh, and West Pennant Hills, Silicon Quill, Hornsby, p.33.Map[1]
Grace Avenue. Hornsby Shire, accessed 27/04/2026, https://hornsbyshire.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/4064