The Walder apartment building is a hidden Kirribilli treasure and next month hits a magical milestone — all thanks to the vision of one “feisty, clever” woman over a century ago.

Viola Sophia Jane Walder, whose Swedish father had run away from home and worked his passage to Australia, bought two blocks of the broken-up Holbrook Estate in 1916 for 2500 pounds.

Over the next two years, she poured her passion and a whopping 18,000 pounds into building The Walder on Kirribilli’s waterfront, after inheriting 7000 pounds in 1906 in the will of her Swedish grandmother.

According to pre-eminent North Sydney historian Dr Ian Hoskins, it was built with an “extraordinary amount of detail”, including the configuration of flats, stairs, choice of timber and tiles, at a huge cost for the time.

“To get a sense of what (the cost) means in today’s terms, the living wage back then was 4.5 pounds per week for a man and little more than half that for a woman,” Dr Hoskins said.

“You could compare those figures to the minimum wage today. A skilled manufacturing worker got 5-6 pounds a week — the equivalent of $80,000-$90,000 today.

“Mrs Walder must have been very wealthy or had access­ to a lot of credit.”

Opening on Armistice Day in 1918, the building, which houses 10 apartments in the inter-war Gothic style, was one of the trailblazing architectural designs on the lower north shore.

Mrs Walder had two children with husband William, brother of Sir Samuel Walder, the Lord Mayor of Sydney when the Harbour Bridge opened on March 19, 1932.

Widowed long before her death, she lived all of her 91 years at The Walder.

Her granddaughter, Gretel Jones, who lived in The Walder for 78 years before moving next door to The Mayfair (built in 1932) some eight years ago, recalls the dramatic night she died.

“She had come back from a party at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron club and was wearing her full evening dress and had all her diamonds­ on when she just collapsed on the stairwell at home,” Mrs Jones recounted last week, ahead of The Walder’s centenary celebrations on November 11.

“She was very healthy til the end and had travelled across Europe by herself for 18 months at the age of 83. I was 42 when she died so I have very good memories of her.”

One of those fond recollections was from back in the 1930s, when deliveries of milk, bread, meat and fruit ’n’ vegies were delivered by horse and cart.

“Even on Christmas Day, we’d have the milkman coming around. But they would be stopping off regularly and having a Christmas drink with everyone,” Mrs Jones said with a laugh.

“There was one Christmas I remember when my grandmother had to ring up someone to come and get him because he was too drunk to keep delivering the milk. And this was about 11am when we were cooking lunch.”

TOUGH WARTIME YEARS

WHILE There were many good times at The Walder in the early days, tragedy struck the family during World War II when Mrs Jones’ aunt, Althea Wrigley, was killed.

Her husband was American and they were on their way back from South Africa, where they had decided to sit out the war, for him to enlist once the US was involved.

Mrs Jones, who was sent away to boarding school in the country for a year after her aunt died, remembers how Sydney looked during the war years.

“The harbour was full of ships, torpedos were going past on barges, and there was this great bustle in the ’40s,” she said.

“When I was growing up, Milsons Point was extraordinarily slummy. It was the time around the Great Depression and there weren’t many jobs, and lots of families were living in just the one room in tiny terrace houses, most of which have since been knocked down.”

A FAMILY TREASURE LIVES ON

Mrs Walder’s descendants have maintained a strong presence at The Walder.

Today, three generations still live in apartments at The Walder and neighbouring The Mayfair, on the second block Mrs Walder bought in 1916.

Her great-granddaughter, Neroli Jones, 55, treasures every moment of life there.

Asked what The Walder means to her, she said with great emotion: “It means so much to me; it makes my voice break.

“I feel like there’s this amazing solid monument to my past family history so I can be the best version of myself. It means security, love and the passion from which Viola built the house.

“There are some quirky things about the building. We’ve still got the original boilers in it (for hot water). But it is just this great monument to a family of incredibly feisty, clever women, going back to Viola.

“We live in a pocket of paradise and not a day goes by when I’m not grateful for everything we’ve got.”

North Sydney Mayor Jilly Gibson bought an apartment in The Walder back in 2005.

“It was the easiest sale ever for the real estate agent. I just walked straight in and said ‘I’ll buy it’.

“I just felt amazing from the moment I walked in,” she said.

“I lived there for 10 years, and my daughter (fellow North Sydney councillor Alanya Drummond) was married there, we had engagement parties, there and one of my best memories is diving from the stone wall into the harbour at high tide in summer.”

Gretel Jones, whose husband Ray died 26 years ago, said The Walder held a “very special place” in her heart.

“I’m very thankful to my grandmother for being so farsighted to buy these blocks when this area was not as desirable as it is now,” she said.

“At the time she bought the land it must have been the end of the earth. It was so far from the rest of Sydney, and well before the bridge came along.

“She was a remarkable woman and would be proud to know the family is still in the home she built with all her heart and soul.”