Three-Storey Methodist Home For Aged

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30632, 24 December 1964, Page 7

Three-Storey Methodist Home For Aged

The Christchurch Central Methodist Mission has received approval in principle for a three-storey old people’s home to be built in the grounds of the South Island Methodist Children’s Home, Harewood road. It will accommodate 36 inmates, and provision is made for an additional storey. Approval had been given in principle for a single-storey home, but as the home has to share the 13-acre site with the orphanage the mission decided to erect a multi-storey home. In a spacious garden setting it will occuply 1.14 acres.

The change of plans has meant that the building must be built in permanent materials, and this has brought a number of problems. The Health Department has questioned the arrangements for ventilation and fire protection, and has made a number of suggestions for the design. “It will be regarded in the light of an experiment, and not a change in the department’s views,” says a letter from the department. The building will include a lift able to carry a bed, two staircases, a television lounge, a general-purpose lounge large enough for religious services and concerts, a smok-ing-room, and facilities for occupational therapy. All bedrooms will be single. An appeal for £20,000 will be made by the mission early next year. There were 99 names on the waiting list for the other Methodist homes in Christchurch a month ago, and this figure has since risen to about 110. This home is considered to answer a pressing demand, and will be interdenominational. The plans and specifications

for the eight-bed Isabel Bursill Home for elderly people in Blenheim have been approved by the department. Tenders will close on January 14. Nearly two acres between McCallum and Fulton streets was left to the Christchurch Presbyterian Social Service Association by the late Isabel Bursill for an old people’s home. Alterations to the house on the property will cost about £lB,OOO. It will then accommodate eight inmates and a staff of three, and allow for expansion. It will be the fourth old people’s home under the control of the association. Isabel Bursill trust funds amount to £7OOO, and the association will contribute £ll.OOO to the cost of construction. “It is hoped to start building early next year and to have the home in operation by the end of the year,” said the Rev. T. G. Campbell, superintendent of the association, yesterday.