Eryldene House - an early colonial style with strong Georgian influence was commissioned by Professor Waterhouse in 1913 to be designed by the noted Australian architect, William Hardy Wilson. It is recognised as the finest unaltered example of Hardy Wilson's work. The property is now The Eryldene Trust which was established in 1979 to acquire and conserve the house as well as its furniture, works of art and artefacts. The trust is a non-profit company which chiefly relies on income from events and open-days.

Professor Waterhouse's interests encompassed art, literature, music and gardening and he believed that a garden should be an extension of one's home. And this is seen at Eryldene with a series of open-air rooms, each leading to the next and furnished with trees, shrubs and flowers.

Eryldene's camellia collection is one of the most historically important in Australia. It includes camellias associated with the early days of New South Wales and which he raised from seed, names and distributed internationally. This collection has an aura of peace and loveliness and surrounding such a disctinctive building it has deservedly won worldwide recognition for Eryldene as "the spiritual home of the camellias".

In 1921 Hardy Wilson designed the Garden Study which is situated separate from the house for peace and privacy. A Chinese Pavilion or Tea House designed in 1927 completes the composition of eastern and western cultures.