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The Susannah Place Museum is a chance to see what living in the Rocks area was like through the years.
The four homes which include a shop in the corner house were built in 1844 & have been the home to many families over the years until 1990.
If you have every taken a ghost tour of the rocks or walk from the Rocks up to the harbour bridge walkway there is a good chance you walked the stairs that go past Susannah Place.
The fact that the houses even survived being knocked over at different times in the past is amazing. One of the reasons is they were one of the first to have running water & being hooked to the sewage system. This meant that at different times when the slum housing of the area was being cleared they were left alone.
The museum is a bit different, repair work has only been done for safety reasons otherwise the building is as it was. You can see the multi layers of paint & wallpaper as they have peeled back.
Some rooms are still being worked on but most have been set up as they appeared during a certain era. You can see the lounge as it was 150 years ago & then walk into a kitchen from 70 years ago & go upstairs to see a 100 year old bedroom.
Out in the backyards you can see the different ways the washing was done from a tub to a wshing machine ( the recent caretaker used ). You can also see different ways of "sitting down & reading newspaper" - from a long drop to a flushing toilet.
Having lived in Sydney I had been past the buildings a few times & always found it strange that the footpath was higher than the buildings - it never seemed right. On the tour I found out the reason for this was the road was raised as part of the building of the roads to access the harbour bridge in the 1930's. They have some old photo's of what the road looked like in the past.
There is a short dvd to watch on the history of the rocks - if you arrive early its good to watch before the tour otherwise catch it afterwards.
There are several tours a day & books can be made in the store.
