CHRISTCHURCH SKETCH-BOOK.—XVI Risingholme, Opawa

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 5

CHRISTCHURCH SKETCH-BOOK.—XVI Risingholme, Opawa

(Specially written for “The Press” by J. A. HENDRY,

Rural Section 157 of 50 acres, granted in 1858 to Arthur John and Frederick Denton, was divided between them in 1860, Arthur retaining some 14 acres south of Jackson’s Creek and nine acres out to Opawa Road.

In 1863 Joshua Strange Williams bought him out on behalf of Joshua Williams, Q.C., of London, from whom William Reeves bought some 11 acres in 1864 for £612. After raising £lBOO on mortgages, Reeves built Risingholme, later buying 1) acres where the Community Hall now stands. He had a varied career, being, variously, manager of the Lyttelton Times Company, a member of Parliament and of the Legislative Council and first chairman of the United Press Association m

New Zealand. One son, Wil- 1 liam Pember, also went into Parliament, holding two portfolios and was later agentgeneral for New Zealand in London. Between Reeves’s death in 1891 and the buying of the now five-acre property in 1918 by Mrs F. W. Anderson, there were five ownerships. When her husband died in 1942, she sold the property to the late Sir John McKenzie, who gave it to the city. It is vested in the mayor and councillors “for the health, amusement and instruction of the public,” and in 1944 Risingholme Community Centre was formed.

Standing on a knoll and showing a curious blend of Gothic and Regency detail, this attractive house is

pleasantly massed and proportioned. The steeply-pitched gabled roofs, once shingled, have little overhang, and are finished with simple bracketed barge-boards. This form of decoration is constantly used, as in the supports to the window hoods, at the angles of the building and to divide the upper and lower floors. Window and porch treatments vary considerably, as can be seen in the front porch, once open at both levels and displaying Gothic influence in the complex timbering. A heavy vertically-panelled door with wrought iron hinges opens into a long, wide hall, at the end of which an insignificant stair rises to the pleasant coved bedrooms of the first floor. The former dining-room, south of the

main hall, contains an elegant Gothic fire surround and a large bay window and behind it lie servery, pantries and kitchen. Opposite are the former morning and drawingrooms, comparatively small, until the Andersons enlarged the drawing-room by enclosing portion of the original verandas, and so making an interestingly-shaped room. WARNER’S HOTEL In my article on Warner's Hotel last week, the impression may have been given that it no longer caters for guests. This is not so, as the three upper floors are run as a 75-bed private unlicensed hotel. On the ground floor are a separate tavern and shops.