Levido builders

The Levido family built many art deco style houses in Chatswood and particularly the Upper North Shore between the 1920s and the 1960s.The patriarch of the family was Edward S. Levido who was followed in his businesses by sons Leonard and Edward (Ted). The houses they built were renowned as solid and well-built. They were mainly built for upwardly mobile people. Many of the houses built between 1938-39 had maid’s quarters. Edward Levido started building in Chatswood in the 1920s. He lived in Boundary St, Chatswood (now Roseville on the eastern side as well). His house was an ordinary old workingman’s cottage. Edward Levido’s son Leonard married Lila Watson. The family moved around first to MsClean Ave and later to View St, Chatswood. The Levido & Sons business office was located in Archer St, Chatswood (opposite the now Chatswood Chase). There was also a plumbing business. The business lasted until the late 1960s until the brothers retired. They moved the business to Anderson St Chatswood where they also had the workshop and later formed a hardware business in Anderson St, Chatswood. They then moved the building supply business to Wyvern Ave at Roseville, on the Pacific Highway. Opposite Seymour’s Garage. The business employed a lot of tradesmen and foreman were employed to manage the building of each house. There were at least two teams of bricklayers, their own concretors and five or six carpenters. The houses and home units they built around this time were primarily in Willoughby,Killara, Gordon, Roseville and Lindfield. The bricks used for the houses were red bricks from the North Shore Bricks Co. (Lansleys .sic) in Artarmon. Mashman Pottery, Victoria Ave, Chatswood, provided all the drain pipes, bathroom fittings and toilet sets. The Levido Brothers also put in the gardens so everything was ready for the owners to move in. Source: Kitson, J and Thomson, T, The Historian, KHS, Vol 46 No.1. Dec 2017 pp. 34 -39.