Arcola, Grafton, Heritage homestead in Grafton, Australia

Arcola is a single-storey 1907 Queen Anne revival house of rendered brick with a hipped iron roof, decorative corner gables and a central gabled entrance portico. A bull-nosed verandah on turned timber posts with cast iron valances runs along the front, and the garden holds mango trees with stables to the rear.

Robert Roland Smith, a grazier with property in the Coaldale and Glenagle districts, commissioned the house in 1907; the Strauss brothers designed it and H. F. Sault built it. The Smith family kept Arcola until 1989, when Mrs Wilkins bought it. Sewerage reached the house around 1934 from the north-east corner, when a toilet and cupboard addition was also built.

Robert Roland Smith, a grazier and founding member of Grafton's Lancers, had Arcola built in 1907; his daughter Violet lived there from 1918 and, as a foundation member of the Clarence Naturalists Club, created the garden. The house stayed in the Smith family until 1989. Look for the etched glass panels and sidelights around the front door.

Arcola stands at 150 Victoria Street, on the corner of Alice Street, where a flood levee beside the Clarence River closed both streets to traffic. The house addresses three frontages, so there is no single main facade to look for. It now runs as a bed and breakfast; the garden, stables and picket fence to Victoria Street are part of the grounds.

Many original fixtures and fittings from 1907 remain intact inside the house, preserved through careful management. Guests staying overnight can see firsthand how the original owner furnished and lived within these spaces.