ETEVENEAUX HOUSE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30188, 20 July 1963, Page 10

ETEVENEAUX HOUSE

Project Nearly Finished

The Eteveneaux House project at Akaroa, involving the restoration of a French house built in the 1840 s and the construction of a modem museum building, is nearing completion. The controlling body, the Eteveneaux House Committee, has decided to apply to the National Historic Places Trust for a grant of £5OO towards furnishing and equipping the buildings. The house wild be furnished and decorated in French style of the 1840 period. It is likely that a double bed of the period, now on permanent loan to the Canterbury Museum, will form the central feature of one of the two rooms, and a request has been made to the French Ambassador (Mr A. Felix) for the help of his Government in providing other furnishings. A sub-committee has been set up to confer with the Canterbury Museum staff as to details of the equipment required tor the displays in the museum block. This, it is intended, will recall the history oif British and Maori settlement of Banks Peninsula.

No opening date has been fixed, and it may be Christmas before the furnishing of the house and the museum displays are complete. The project was financed by a grant of £lOOO from the Historic Places Trust, and an additional £9OOO has been raised from public donations and other sources.