David Cheney's Legacy Lives On

Master builder David Cheney passed away more than four years ago but his legacy is shining brighter than ever in the Adelaide property industry.


Cheney, a passionate South Australian who grew up in Mannum, qualified as a physical education and geography teacher and established the My Goodness chain of health-food stores before his building “hobby” consumed his life.


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It didn’t take long before he earned a reputation as a world-class craftsman, creating many of Adelaide’s most impressive high-end homes.


A number of his homes have hit the Adelaide real estate market this spring, including three listed by Toop&Toop Real Estate.


Toop&Toop founder Anthony Toop, a close friend of Cheney, said the builder’s meticulous research and attention to detail was second-to-none.


“David Cheney was a builder who built homes to last for centuries,” Toop said.
“David used to come over frequently and look at our mansions we had for sale with his tape measure and he’d measure every little detail. He’d take hundreds of photographs then he’d go an reproduce a modern version.

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“I can tell you the David Cheney homes we’ve got on the market at the moment will still be there in 200 years.


“He always used to talk about his legacy … and his legacy was the homes he built.”
Leading Toop&Toop sales partner Peter McMillan, also a good friend of Cheney, said the builder demanded perfection in all his homes.


“The thing you noticed most about David in everything he said was his passion for classical design and quality construction,” McMillan said.


“You could say it was almost an obsession with building homes that were properly built from the ground up. Every aspect of design and construction was there so that it was a classic and it was made to last.

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“David tended to have clients as demanding as he was. There’s an example with one property I’m selling at the moment where the owner of the home and David flew together to the United States to study the structure of the Maryland State Capitol Building to bring back all of the design detail around this 18th century building.


“When you see a David Cheney home it will be solid brick, solid floors … and just overall a quality feel that only comes from investing a lot of time and money and passion.
“If something wasn’t just perfect, it wasn’t good enough for David.”

Toop&Toop are selling three David Cheney homes:

71a Seaview Road, Tennyson

4 Olde Coach Lane, Glen Osmond

25 St Andrews Street, Walkerville


TOOP+TOOP