I attended Coogee Public School from 1950 to 1956 and then in 19868, I met my wife at the Coogee Bay Hotel while watching the after-10,00pm rock show there -so it seemed
fitting that this iconic venue was once Coogee's first school
In 1857, Mr George Edson conducted a school for young gentlemen in Balmain's Scots Church Hall in Darling Street. He claimed to have had sixteen years teaching experience.
By 1859 he was operating a school for six boarders from Trenton Villa in Randwick but close to Coogee for the sea bathing opportunities for his students. It was a preparatory school
for boys up to twelve years of age and offered a "Classical and Commercial Education".
Up until 1862, Edson was also working as a Council Clerk at Randwick so it is likely that his wife was doing most of the instruction. He advertised regularly in newspapers suggesting
that his enterprise was never fully accommodated. Sydney at that time was infested with private academies that rarely had very long existences.
Advertisement for Edson's School at Nararenderra House, Coogee Sydney Morning Herald, 14 April, 1865, p. 8
In April 1864, Mr Edson announced that his school was moving to Narenderra House, Coogee Bay claiming its close proximity to the ocean and being twenty acres of beautiful recreation
grounds made it an attractive place for the education of young gentlemen. The property was built sometime in the mid-1850s as a private residence of Mr Thomas Grant who owned
livery stable ins in Pitt Street. Grant had also stood unsuccessfully in 1859 for election as a councillor for the Municipality of Randwick and Coogee. He would therefore have been well acquainted
with George Edson.
Coogee Bay Hotel, 1873 Australian Town and Country Journal, 26 July, 1873, p. 16
In 1866, Edson advertised his school which he now named as Morten Lodge. Its demise seemed to come about in 1871 and by 1873 it had been converted to the Coogee Bay Hotel.
George Edson passed away in 1877, just one year after the establishment of the Coogee Public School.
