SCHOOL ON SITE OF MANSION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27308, 26 March 1954, Page 10

SCHOOL ON SITE OF MANSION

SALVAGE SALE AT “ ELMWOOD ”

KAURI TIMBER AMONG 300 LOTS Many Christchurch people yesterday saw how a historic homestead was being replaced by modern school buildings, when they attended the second salvage sale on the former Rhodes estate at “Elmwood,” Heaton street, where tall chimneys are all that remain of the big house. Next week chimneys, too, will go; the bricks will fill in the old cellars; and then more blocks of the new Heaton Street Intermediate School will be erected. Big kauri joists, 12ft to 26ft long, more than 70 years old, and still showing the original chalk measurements, were the chief attraction in the sale yesterday. These came from the floor of the second storey, and 15ft, 16ft, and 18ft lengths measuring 12in by three and four inches sold for £2 10s and £2 12s 6d each. Some shorter lengths went for 355. Five pieces of kauri shelving, 28in wide, sold for £5 ss. A lot of the kauri was taken for boat building, and will be left in salt water before use. Stacks of 6in by 2in red pine, 17ft long, sold for £2 15s a stack, and Bin by 2in timber made £4 15s. Original 400-gallon tanks in new condition, with the importer’s name still unblemished, made £l5 10s each. In all, more than 300 lots, mostly timber, ■ were sold yesterday in three hours and a half. At the first salvage sale there was more than four tons of lead, great quantities of roofing slates, and other items seldom found now in salvage sales.

Visitors to the “Elmwood” property yesterday were ii. trigued by the school building. Most had read of developments by the Canterbury Education Board, but few realised the ultimate size of the Heaton Street Intermediate School, or that the building is so far advanced that it abuts on the foundations of the old homestead.

At the beginning of the first term in February the first wing, parallel to and nearest Papanui road, was occupied. Another section of the school has been formed by the new assembly hall, the exterior of which is now almost completed, so that interior work can be hurried on in the winter. This hall extends right up to the chimneys of the old homestead. Further out towards St. Andrew’s College three classrooms are nearly completed, and when the chimneys are demolished three more classrooms will link them to the assembly hall. A third section of the school, in line with the others, will be started immediately the homestead site is cleared and filled. It will contain cookery, dressmaking, and art departments. Still further west. , foundations have been laid and framing has started on woodwork and metalwork departments and an “activities” room. Construe-

tion on a boiler house is well and a dental clinic is almost finished. Along the Heaton street boundary there are new bicycle sheds —100 ya* o * of them. Playing fields have been . levelled for sowing, so that o. the beginning of next year nearly work should be completed on the lateand most modern intermediate senoo in Christchurch.