He partially demolished the old Yarralumla homestead in 1890 and, the following year, finished building a three-storey, red-brick house on the site. NSW Government land-title records show that Campbell borrowed money from Gibbes (and from another one of Gibbes' brothers-in-law, Augustus Berney, a Sydney-based Customs Department officer) to help pay for the building project. In 1899, Campbell razed what was left of the original homestead, replacing it with a substantial brick extension to the main house.