Croomlea reflects a rich history
Croomlea Homestead has been part of Timaru’s landscape for 121 years, serving as accommodation in a variety of ways. It is now back on the market and Herald reporter Esther Ashby-Coventry went inside to check it out.
Timaru’s 121-year-old Croomlea is home to mysteries and quirkiness and has been incarnated many times.
The two-storey homestead at 100 North St, has eight bedrooms, five toilets and 20 rooms altogether, and over the years has morphed from a family home to a high school hostel, a boarding house, flats, and restructured back into a home with a selfcontained flat.
Some of the home’s original aspects remain with its brass doorstep and brass plaque displaying its name on the front door, along with a letter slot. As was the fashion in the 19th century, a foyer with a plaster ceiling rose and archway leads into the house. A toilet sits under the stairs, possibly part of the servants’ quarters in the past.
Part of the mystery of the building is shown in a bedroom cupboard were a former owner inexplicably wall-papered over a shut bedroom cupboard, attaching pointless door knobs onto the floral wallpaper.
Croomlea’s owner Dale McKay hopes there is a treasure hidden inside but doesn’t want to ruin the wallpaper to find out.
Other unusual arrangements include an outside window at one end of a wardrobe and steps into an exterior blank wall.
Music specialist McKay and husband Andrew purchased the 1.351-square-metre property in 2006 and the vendors bought the McKay’s house in Harper St, basically swapping homes.
The couple’s children were at primary school at the time.
‘‘It has been an adventure living in this house. The children would play hide and seek, and count the toilets. ‘‘
While the home has been updated there are still many reminders of the past with long cord light switches, 4.2-metre (14 foot) stud ceilings, 257-centimetre high skirting boards, five fireplaces, and sash windows with tricky locking and weighted pulley systems.
A picture rail, and bay windows in the lounge have ornate wooden additions to the corners of the glass, the detail offering character which McKay admires.
She said she knows parts of the home’s history – the house was built in 1896 by TJ Burns, who owned it for two years.
Croomlea was name after Croom in Ireland where his mother came from. He also owned the Empire Hotel in Timaru and is buried in Timaru Cemetery with his two infant daughters who both died at the age of six months.
The next owner was James McCahon who lived in the homestead from 1898 to 1916. The grocer ran his business Kernohan & McCahon in North St.
It was then used as a hostel for Timaru Girls’ High School for 14 students from out of town until 1920.
Possibly in the 1950s and the next few decades the Richards family lived in the flat area and used the rest as a boarding house. Sometime later it was turned into five flats, with the bottom half of the staircase removed. It apparently had a reputation as a party venue a former police officer has told McKay.
The owners before the McKay family changed it back into a house, using a staircase from the old Bidwill Hospital to create a functional stairway to get up easily to the four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The type of wood used for the stairs and balustrades is unknown as they have been painted white.
Croomlea is on the market as the McKay’s children have left home and they are ready to downsize.
The reason they bought it as a family home, and to offer a haven to the spiritually searching, the tired, homeless and rejected, has served its purpose.
From post-earthquake refugees to people going through personal issues to overseas students and friends in the midst of renovations needing a bed, all have been welcomed and looked after in the grand old dame, Croomlea, now ready for the next phase of its history.