On January 9,1851, the Bishop’s son laid the foundation stone of the Episcopal Residence, Bishop's Court. The South Australian Register reported that “Mr Stuckey, the architect ... exhibited the plans for the proposed building, a chaste design in the Tudor-Gothic, but by no means an ambitious structure for an episcopal palace.”
Stuckey's obituary notice in the Observer of June 7, 1851, described him as highly talented with a refined taste: “To him we owe some monuments of a style of architecture hallowed and endeared to us by the most sacred and heart soothing associations. The Collegiate School of St. Peter, the fittings of the Apse of North Adelaide Church, show high capacity in the loftier branches of his profession; while the designs of Hindmarsh, Port Lincoln, Clare, Penwortham, Port Adelaide Churches, the parsonage of Christ Church and Bishop’s Court (new residence of the Lord Bishop) exhibit both taste and skill in the application of very common building materials to the production of exquisite architectural effects.”
Due to Stuckey’s death, Edmund Wright probably supervised the final stages of erection of Bishop’s Court by T. Long. Erection of the building was slow because of the exodus of labour to the Victorian goldfields. For a time the walls of the original central section of the building remained without a roof until Bishop Short raised a loan to cover the cost of roofing. Part of the building was consecrated in 1852. It has since been considerably extended.
On the Bishop’s return from England in 1854 a subscription was raised in the diocese to add the rooms at the west end of the building so as to make it habitable for him and his family. A dining room and bedrooms were subsequently added, completing the bishop’s idea of a “good decanal residence”. Later, rooms to the west were added, and in 1912 the chapel and entrance porch were added to the north face to the design of G.K. Soward. The roofing of slates has been replaced by corrugated galvanized iron.