Lisgar Training Home for Domestic Servants was begun in Ashfield by Captain David and Mrs Maria Scott in 1870 and became part of the Church of England Deaconess Institution in 1893. It trained young women in domestic service, including state wards aged 14, and some Aboriginal girls. From 1900 The Deaconess Children’s Home was co-located with Lisgar Training School for Domestic Servants on Darling St, Balmain. In 1914 this Home officially merged with The Deaconess Children’s Home and moved to Marrickville where the two institutions were known as Lisgar Children’s Home.
Lisgar Training Home was intended to provide training in domestic service for women of low education. Some state wards were referred there when they reached the age of 14 and some Aboriginal girls were sent there for training.
The training home was initially called the Protestant Servant’s Training School. Shortly after it’s opening its location was described as a property on Upper Dowling Street, Darlinghurst. During this period the home accommodated an average of 18 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 at a given time, and had a capacity for 20 girls.
Parent’s of the girls attending the school were expected to pay where possible, with fees ranging from 1s 6d to 5s per week. However, as stated in the Sydney Mail in 1870, the school also accepted girls from families who couldn’t afford to pay fees, providing that the girls were Protestant and “respectable”. Once their training was complete the girls were apprenticed out as domestic servants in private homes. The girls received 25% of their wages as “pocket money”, with the remaining money being retained by the school in “credit of the child, who receives the same on completion of her apprenticeship” (‘Female Protestant Training School’, 1873).
In 1875 the training home officially changed its name to Lisgar Training School, moved from its premises in Darlinghurst to a slightly larger property on Liverpool street, Paddington, next door to the home of its founders Captain and Mrs. Scott. Here it had capacity for approximately 25 girls.
It appears there are no surviving records of the home.
From
1870
To
1914
Alternative Names
Lisgar Training School
Protestant Servant's Training School
Female Protestant Training School for Domestic Servants
c. 1870 - 1875
Lisgar Training Home for Domestic Servants was located at Upper Dowling Street, Darlinghurst, New South Wales (Building Demolished)
1875 - 1900
Lisgar Training Home for Domestic Servants was located on Liverpool street, Paddington, New South Wales (Building Unknown)
1900 - 1914
Deaconess Children's Home and Domestic Training School was co-located with Lisgar Training School for Domestic Servants at Darling Street, Balmain, New South Wales (Building Still standing)
Subsequent