John Street has been mainly residential since the mid-nineteenth century. West of Harris Street, CSR bought houses whenever they could, for their employees. Apart from the three pubs and the public school, almost all the cottages were rented to refinery or distillery workers.
When Lend Lease acquired the CSR estate, therefore, they could replace most of the precinct with new apartments. All but one of the cottages between Jones Street and Cadigal Avenue were preserved, and most have been renovated and refurbished.
One was beyond repair: it has been recreated as a ‘Ghost House’. The skeletal frame of the old cottage has been built, in the hope that artifacts, archives and heritage items will be stored and displayed there.