One of the early owners, perhaps the first, of Greenfaulds House appears to have been Mr Charles James Kerr (a timber merchant). He was very active in the community around the Station and was instrumental in the establishment of the Southern District School and the Southern Hall. Mr Kerr died in 1900 and prior to its sale for use as a Children’s Home, the house may have been owned by the Summerville family although the Morgan family are also recorded as living there. Some houses in this area we large enough to house more than one family. It was sold again in 1937.
Greenfaulds House opened as a Convalescent and Sick Children’s Home in May 1913.
Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser 31 May 1913
“The Rev. Arch. Maclaren, St Enoch Parish Church, Glasgow, presided, and introduced Mr John Lindsay, J.P., Town Clerk of Glasgow, hon. president of the Homes, who, in declaring the Homes open, urged the necessity for such a bona-fide institution. The new Homes occupy a fine site near Cumbernauld Station, where the management recently purchased Greenfaulds Mansion and three acres of ground. Accommodation can be provided for about 100 children.”
From the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser 31 May 1913
“The work performed among children living in the poorer districts of Glasgow was commented upon on Thursday at the annual meeting of the Scottish Convalescent Home, Greenfaulds, Cumbernauld. The meeting, which was held in the Christian Institute, Glasgow, was presided over by Lady Yarrow. The report which was submitted by Mr Harry D. Boyd, the hon. secretary and treasurer, stated that the home had rendered during the year much needed and much appreciated assistance to children from the poorest parts of Glasgow. The home contained 26 beds all of which were kept occupied during during the six summer months and at the Christmas holidays. Last year about 400 patients had a holiday at Greenfaulds for a fortnight or longer. The committee of the Home were greatly indebted to the Child Welfare Centres, the Public Health Department, and various hospitals and missions for getting in touch with the most neseccitous cases.”
However, it is clear that by the 1930s the Home was beginning struggle financially.
The Scotsman 26 August 1933
“A gift of £20,000 to the Scottish Convalescent Home, Greenfaulds, Cumbernauld, was intimated at the annual general meeting of subscribers to the institution in Glasgow yesterday afternoon – Sir Andrew H. Pettigrew presiding. The donation is from the trustees of the late Professor Archibald Barr, of Glasgow University, who was an inventor of many important scientific instruments of the firm off Messrs Barr & Stroud, Anniesland, Glasgow.”
Milngavie and Bearsden Herald 08 December 1933
An appeal for £6000 on behalf of the Scottish Convalescent Home for Sick Children from Greenfaulds, Cumbernauld, but now at Westerton of Mugdock, Milngavie has been issued by the committee of the Home. The transfer of the home to Westerton of Mugdock, where the accommodation is doubled, entails a very much larger annual expenditure and offers opportunity for a great extension of the beneficent work that the institution has carried on for nearly 30 years.
The appeal states that a providential opportunity for extending the work of the institution – more than doubling it – has been furnished by the £20,000 legacy left by the late Professor Archibald Barr of Glasgow. Of that some £5000 was spent in acquiring Professor Barr’s house and grounds at Westerton of Mugdock, and a further amount was required to equip the house to make it suitable for the new Home. The balance remaining, in accordance with the terms of the legacy, has to form the nucleus of an endowment fund, and the committee have bound themselves to increase this to £20,000. They require the sum of £6000 to do so. The family of the late Professor and Mrs Barr requested that the names of the parents should be associated with their former home. This has been gladly acceded to and the institution will now be known as the Scottish Convalescent Home for Sick children (Archibald and Isabella Barr memorial).
Greenfaulds House was sold to a private owners in August 1933.