History and heritage
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Gracemount Community Park was created in 2001 occupying the site of a former orchard of Gracemount House, which lies directly to the north of the park. A B-listed mansion in South Edinburgh, Gracemount House was built c.1780, being considerably altered and expanded in 1800, added to and altered again around 1890 and again c.1932. Today it consists of an entrance block, facing east, with a further block behind. The east front features oversized bays at either side of the entrance and comprises a just a single storey but with a deep basement and attic rooms within a mansard roof. The house and estate were sold to Edinburgh Corporation on the death of its owner, Charles Green (1866 - 1920) who was a legal publisher in the city. It was used as a nursing home for some years but then lay vacant until it took on its current use. Its policies were gobbled up to form the Gracemount public housing estate from the 1950s, with only a modest unkempt garden remaining, which includes a walled garden, outbuildings and a fenced sports pitch. The site of the house is of great interest as the hill was originally known as "Priest Hill". The change of name occurred after the Reformation, when it was then known as "Mount of Grace", hence Gracemount.
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