 John Beswicke's own residence ‘Rotha’ at No 29 was built in 1887, and in 1900 he built the even grander ‘Talana’ on the corner of Auburn Road for his wife, but she preferred to stay at ‘Rotha’.Beswicke was associated as a consulting designer with a number of property and building companies in the Boom period of the 1880s.One of these was the Australian Property and Investment Co; he had designed houses and subdivisions for one of the directors, and his brother in law had been a manager.