Tender care brings building back to life
Christchurch’s Old Stone House has reopened after seven years and a $2 million repair job.
The heritage-listed building was severely damaged in the February 2011 earthquake before being strengthened to 67 per cent of the new building standard during a 15-month restoration.
A series of concrete beams are now hidden inside the walls and a complicated steel structure sits beneath the slate roof. The chimney has been rebuilt around a steel core and the stone lintels have been replaced.
The strengthening work is barely noticeable as the building looks exactly like it did before the earthquakes.
The two-and-a-half storey building, at the foot of the Port Hills, was built in 1870 by Sir John Cracroft Wilson to house his farm workers and servants.
At yesterday’s official opening, Cracroft Wilson’s great-great granddaughter Caroline Murray said she spent a lot of time at the house and farm when she was a child.
‘‘I loved watching the team of draft horses coming back in after work. They would be wheeled over to stand and drink at the trough in the middle of what is now Holmcroft Court. They would stand there drinking, slobbering a bit and meditating and then they would go back to their stables and have a well earned rest.’’
Murray said the building had a stubborn heart, like its founder.
‘‘It has inspired so many people to get it back on its feet again. It really clearly has a heart and a will to survive.
‘‘It’s amazing to think it’s only a lifetime ago that this was such a busy place and now it’s serving the community in a totally different way.’’
The building would be run by the Cracroft Community Centre committee as it was before the earthquake and would revert back to its role as a meeting place for the community and a wedding venue.
Cracroft Community Centre committee chairwoman Olwyn Rudd said the council had done a great job with the restoration.
‘‘I’m speechless.’’ Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel said the building was charming and elaborate and a rare example of the Englishstyle lobby entry houses that were typical in England’s agricultural architecture in the late 17th century.
‘‘Christchurch has many fine stone buildings all built for prominence or power, but the Old Stone House is the only one built as workers’ quarters.’’
The building was used to house farm workers until 1930 and was gifted to the student Christian movement in 1966. It was badly damaged by fire in July 1971 after one of the students left a lamp on a pillow so his friends could see when they came in later that night.
Dalziel said it then took several years of tireless campaigning by Norman and Betty Roberts to have the building saved.
‘‘Without the tender loving care of people like the Wilsons, the Roberts and the people who have just completed the latest renovation, what could have been simply an historical footnote, has become an integral part of the community nearly a century and a half later.’’
An open day for the public will be held on Saturday, February 17 from 1.30pm.