Our story

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ouR stoRy: Glenaeon,

Last year on Friday October 29th the school officially opened our new hall The Marion Mahony Griffin Hall and other facilities at Castlecrag.

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1/4. The Marion Mahony

Griffin Hall. 2/3.New class rooms at Castlecrag. 5. Marion Mahony Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin,

Sydney 1930. 6. Marion Mahony Griffin drawing of Castlecrag.

We were delighted to host the Hon Peter Garrett, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, representing the Australian government, who performed the official opening. Interestingly enough we learned from Mr Garrett that his brother Matthew had attended Glenaeon from 1968, and he himself had almost enrolled his daughter here before the family moved to the southern highlands: a happy connection that was reflected in his entertaining speech. Other invited guests include the Mayor of Willoughby, Cr Pat Reilly, and Mr James Fitzpatrick, the President of the Castlecrag Progress Association, who spoke of the new and growing relationship between the school and the Castlecrag community.

This BER funded building represents a particularly important confluence of Glenaeon’s history with that of our nation. In 1914 Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony arrived in Australia from Chicago, having just won the world-wide competition to design Australia’s new capital city Canberra. Into that plan, Griffin poured his wide understanding of landscape architecture based on his study of the great ancient cities of the world such as Athens and Rome.

After laying out the basic plan of the city, he left Canberra and settled in Castlecrag, Sydney where he and Marion worked to create a new kind of community, one that embedded houses into Sydney bushland, where houses built of sustainable and local products were linked together with the environment rather than being on their separate quarter acre blocks. Ahead of their time, the Griffin’s established a new kind of social community in Castlecrag: through the 1920’s and early 30’s

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castlecRaG, austRalia

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…the Griffin’s established a new kind of social community in Castlecrag: through the 1920’s and early 30’s… a diverse range of people interested in new and creative ideas… …When in 1994 the school was able to acquire the old Castlecrag Infants School… it was the realisation of Marion’s original vision…

of the last century, they brought together a diverse range of people interested in new and creative ideas.

In Castlecrag they also discovered the work of Dr Rudolf Steiner who was then still alive and active in Europe: in Anthroposophy they found a contemporary spiritual path that inspired their own explorations. Marion established study groups on Dr Steiner’s work, and she became particularly active in Dr Steiner’s ideas on education. There was a small kindergarten in Sunnyside Crescent with which she worked, and her vision was always that there would one day be a school for Dr Steiner’s education in Castlecrag.

It was not to be in her lifetime. After Walter’s death in 1937, she returned to the US, but left behind a vibrant group of people who actively championed the cause of Steiner education. One of her friends and co-workers was Lute Drummond who as Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society introduced many people to Dr Steiner’s work. One of these people was Sylvia Brose, then a young woman involved with the Castlecrag group. She was so inspired that the Anthroposophical Society supported her to go to Europe to train as a Steiner teacher, and on her return she established the first Steiner school in Australia at Pymble.

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1. Inside the new hall. 2. Christian Lillicrap directs the

Glenaeon Chamber Choir. 3. Mr James Ftzpatrick, President of

Castlecrag Progress Association. 4. Hugo Lee and Will Hoffman,

Year 11 students. 5. L-R Collegiate Chair Andrew Hill,

Hon Peter Garrett, Minister for

School Education, Mayor of

Willoughby, Councillor Pat Reilly, and Ian Davis, Chair, Glenaeon

School Council. 6. Class 2 welcome the Minister while Mary Heard, Campus

Secretary, looks on.

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When a bequest of land was left to the Anthroposphical Society, they sold the land (believing it to be too far from the population centres of Sydney: how things change!) and bought our site at Middle Cove. The name of the property at Belrose was Glenaeon, so as was custom at the time, the name was transferred to the new property bought with the proceeds of the sale. The Kindergarten at Pymble was sold and Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School was consolidated at 5a Glenroy Ave, Middle Cove.

Such is Glenaeon’s story. When in 1994 the school was able to acquire the old Castlecrag Infants School for our own Kindergarten and early years, it was the realisation of Marion’s original vision. A school based on Dr Rudolf Steiner’s educational practice, providing an education for the whole child and founded on spiritual principles, was now in existence in her beloved Castlecrag.

Since 1994 we have used the original buildings of the old school. Now for the first time, and courtesy the generous BER grant from the Commonwealth government, we have been able to put our own stamp on the property in the form of a purpose designed and built hall, library and classroom, and admin facilities. And in honour of Marion’s founding vision and inspiration for both Glenaeon and Castlecrag, the new hall is named the Marion Mahony Griffin Hall.

Marion was a remarkable woman in her own right. She was just the second woman to graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was the first woman to be registered as an architect in US history. She worked closely with Frank Lloyd Wright in his Chicago office, where in fact she met Walter. It is accepted by architectural authorities that she was responsible for significant elements of Walter’s designs, and that much of Walter’s provenance of work was in fact a joint effort between the two of them. Her outstanding drawings of the original plan of Canberra were important factors in their winning the competition. She was involved in the founding of our nation’s capital, in founding the community of Castlecrag, and in the founding of Glenaeon school.

Marion’s life combined the elements that still inspire

Glenaeon: reverence for Nature, an artistic impulse, a commitment to beauty in design, a realisation of the classical ideals of Goodness, Beauty and Truth, an emphasis on balance of the whole human being, a commitment to community. The story of Marion Mahony Griffin brings the stories of Glenaeon, Castlecrag and indeed Australia together: it is one of which all members of our community can be proud. 

...Since 1994 we have used the original buildings of the old school. Now for the first time, and courtesy the generous BER grant, …we have been able to put our own stamp on the property in the form of a purpose designed and built hall, library and classroom, and admin facilities…