This house was built in 1880 facing Bridge Street (now Pittwater Road) on six and three-quarter acres of cultivated land owned by Henry Massey Makinson, solicitor. He had owned the land from 1876 next to Thomas Cooper Makinson, who had lived there from 1864. Dunham House at first had ten rooms (with outhouses) and by 1885 there were twelve. Sandstone forms the walls and the timber linings inside are cedar.