AN OLD HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 151, 30 June 1928, Page 17

AN OLD HOUSE

OVER SIXTY YEARS:OF HUTT -HISTORY- .. ■/ , ' ' ' ~~~; ;■■■;.'.' '.■l could not*say' hipw" oldut; is. All 1 can tell you.is.that it .-.was' recognised as an old house -when.I1 knew' it sixty.years u"o," said Mr. J. Allen, o£: Lower llutt, yesterday when■ .referring', to the house on Donnelly's corner, Lower llutt,, now being demolished to ' make a 'broader highway lor the approach to lhVnew:Hutt Bridge. "It Was-at that:time occupied by Mr. Ditchen, and: was,* I■ think, personally built .by him Mr. Donuolly, who married JMr. Ditch.en's daughter, .-.then oueupied it, and it lias been in the occupation of the Donnelly family ever since.'< At that time the then existing bridge •■•crossed, the river somowhei-e near, the site! of .the-one- now. under construction. . Riverbank street, as wo now know it,- did- not then, exist, it being put through, wlieira. bridge was built further.up. stream.; ] there .was, ln;\vcVcr, a narrow road v]eading,ott':what is now. Railway avenue,- giving access to .the Wesleyan Cemetery. „The river, was. then, of course, much narrower, and there were rows of houses (among others the Alionby Arms) on each side,-, the sites of which are now river bed." •.. The house, which was a two-story one, with old-fashioned dormer windows, was built oE , ordinary 'building riitiu witli n matai floor,'and originally-had a roof of white pine shingles.. These were^ afterwards covered/with iron, but are still in a fair state of preservation. A large quantity :of;.the■ framing is. still' quite sound, but in other parts the .borer.has done its deadly work. .There: was found pasted on the wall a Wellington "Independent," dated May, 1872;..: -.■ ' . „' .• ... The land on which the house- stands was purchased by ■ the Borough Council, for road-widening purposes. The : work of clearing the ground of trees-and of setting back the street' alignment is assisting to find labour for sonic.of the unemployed The borough will shortly place on the market' the .balance of; the land not required for street-widening-purposes.