National Trust's Offer For Historic Eteveneaux House

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 11

National Trust's Offer For Historic Eteveneaux House

The National Historic Places Trust will provide £lOOO, subject to local support and control, towards the purchase of Eteveneaux House, one of Akarqa’s oldest and most historic houses. The Banks Peninsula centennial committee has funds available to help in the purchase of the house and it is hoped the balance will be contributed by Akaroa local bodies.

It is proposed to restore the house and set up a museum. ' The first owner of Eteveneaux House was Aimable Langlois, a brother of Captain Langlois, who commanded the Comte de Paris which brought the first French and German settlers to Akaroa in 1840. He Wes in charge of the Nanto-Borde false Company’s store and was granted ownership of the site of the house by the company on July 26, 1841. In 1845 the house was built and a garden formed. By this time, however, Langlois had sailed to Honolulu and appointed an Akaroa carpenter, Georges Fleuret, as his agent. Although there is no record, it appears Fleuret occupied the house at this time.

In November, 1852, Louis Vaillant, a local blacksmith who had married Georges Fleuret’S widow, applied for the section to the land claims commissioners on behalf of Langlois. The section was granted to Langlois in 1856. About this time Langlois died in California and the section was sold to Jean Pierre Eteveneaux in 1858 by Jacques Langlois. Eteveneaux died in 1869 and left the house and property to his son-in-law, Jacob Waeckerle. About 1880, his daughter, Mrs

Robert Bayley, added’ to the house. She sold the property in 1906 to a Mrs Sarah Gundy or Grundy. In 1920 the house was sold to Mr F. J. Hill, a commission agent who sold it again in 1922 to Mr W. A. Thomas, a Christchurch tailor, and the property has. remained in the hands of the Thomas family until recently. A Christchurch architect, Mr J. A. Hendry, a member of the Canterbury regional committee of the Historic Places Trust, who examined the house, has recommended that the later additions should be removed entirely, and that the original house should be restored completely and refurnished with period furniture. Mr Hendry says that landscaping of the garden would enhance the beauty of the property, and as the house will not last forever, a complete photographic record and a measured drawing of it should be made. He also suggests that a permanent gallery at the rear of the house should be built to keep the more valuable museum exhibits under better and more lasting conditions.