A multi-storey Boom and high Victorian style house, with a mansard roof broken by an Italianate central tower, views overlooking Glebe Gully, and it's garden and land originally extending to the bottom of Glebe Gully. Built in 1887 by George Raffan, a building contractor and pioneer of the first cement works in NSW, who arrived from Scotland in 1874. He grew up in a coastal town north-west of Aberdeen, called Rathven, in a house called Randwick. Raffan remained living in Rathven House until he died in 1915.
In the 1920s it was owned and occupied by Dr A.M. Loewenthal, who sold it to Sydney Grammer School in 1926 as a boarding house for students. The school made a number of alterations to the property to accommodate its new purpose. A fete was held in the grounds to raise funds for the project, with attractions such as dart competitions, dancing and fortune telling. The school vacated the property in 1977 and later sold it to developers, sparking fears within the community of its demolition.
The community fought for its preservation and in 1979 an interim conservation order was placed on the house by the state government. The house was considered significant for its architecture as well as its gardens, which contained Norfolk Island pines and Port Jackson figs. The interim order elapsed in July 1981 and the house sold to a group of Sydney businessmen in August. Community outrage resurfaced and members of the Glebe Gully Preservation Group protested strongly when demolition work started in October.
On the 23rd of October 1981 the Planning and Environment Minister, Eric Bedford, applied a permanent conservation order on Rathven, saving it from demolition. In November the house sold to a private owner and it has now been converted back to a private residence.
