Crowle House (1952 - 2012)

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Crowle House was a bequest from Cecil Crowle. The house, on a two-hectare site, had been used as a halfway house for delinquent children but had fallen into disrepair. Crowle offered it to the Sub-Normal Children's Welfare Association and they renovated the property. It was opened at the end of 1952.

Crowle House began as a residential school, but according to historian Dave Earl, the death and illness of some of the children's parents obliged them to take on children on a permanent basis. Many of these children would live out their lives at Crowle House.

Crowle House was run by the Ryde branch Sub-Normal Children's Association of New South Wales until 1984, when that body broke apart and formed the Challenge Foundation. The Ryde branch of the Challenge Foundation then ran the Home until 1993. Challenge Foundation encouraged its branches to incorporate, and the Ryde branch became Crowle Foundation. In 2008 the Crowle Foundation merged with the Hornsby branch of Challenge Foundation to form a new body, which evolved into a body called Achieve. Achieve was a disability services provider, and decided to redevelop Crowle House into units.

By that stage Crowle House was no longer a children's home, but a facility for adults. However community members protested the closure of Crowle House, because a number of the residents had been there for 40 years and knew no other home.