Destruction of an old house - once our home

Destruction of a beautiful old house, or so we think.  The sceptical part of me says that the pulling apart of the old house has been done on purpose so that redevelopment plans can go ahead.   However it could be that during the renovations the new owners ran out of money, or found more problems with the house then they predicted, or experienced a major personal calamity and could not continue.   But there is no doubt that the house is currently looking very dilapidated, with no evidence of recent work being carried out, and parts of it appear to have been vandalised.   

231 Esplanade, Henley Beach, Adelaide, South Australia.   Our home from March 1979 to December 1987.    A house where our children grew up, where family and friends spent holidays, and where we spent much time socialising, and watching the world walk past our tinted front windows.  We could see out and people could not see in.  It was a quick dash over the very hot bitumen car park, onto the equally hot sand, and into the refreshingly cool water.     The beach views were outstanding, and the sunsets unbelievably beautiful.    We spent a very happy nearly nine years there.

There was, however, a down side.   The house was in a very poor condition when we bought it, and we spent nine years renovating it, with the last few months frantically finishing it off so that we could sell it.  After eight and a half years we were getting tired, and our money had run out.   The house was auctioned,  and we managed to get enough money from it to buy the next house outright.   The next owners, who made some changes inside, enlarged the back courtyard, and built a high fence at the front and a new garage at the back, lived there for nearly thirty years.    Interestingly they painted the woodwork a Greek blue, whereas we had painted it a dark Dutch green.   Different cultural backgrounds.

About two years ago the house was sold for nearly $2,000,000, to an older couple who lived in a maisonette next to the house.   There were photos in the newspaper of them, standing in front of their new house.  Sceptical friends of ours felt that the couple had probably organised a syndicate to finance a redevelopment of the very large site, which spanned between the Esplanade and Seaview Road.  But we felt positive.

The solid bluestone house had been built in the 1890s, and was owned for a short time by a member of the Playford family.   It contained five large rooms, plus servants quarters at the back, and a prefab kitchen behind it.   Kitchens were often at the back of the house or in separate buildings, due to fire risks.  All the main rooms had beautiful marble fireplaces, extremely high ceilings and ornate plaster work.  It would appear that the house was wired for electrical lighting when it first became available in Adelaide.   

A doctor owned the house for many years, and he built a huge surgery facing Seaview Road, and a garage.   He also replaced the original bullnosed verandah at the front, with a massive thick concrete construction with a terrace on top.   It was from here that he raised a flag and fired a starter cannon, in order to start sailing races at the Henley Sailing Club.

An amazing house.   However, by the time we bought it, its glorious past had long gone.    The elderly couple who owned it, had converted it into three flats, and  had rented out the surgery to a local doctor.     White ants (termites) had moved in and eaten away woodwork, the marble fireplaces had been painted over, some of the plaster work in the rooms had fallen down, and the original wiring was dodgy to say the least, with cloth covered wiring in the ceiling encased in tinder dry wood.   The insulation roof cavity was dried seaweed.   

The massive front verandah, with its thick supporting columns, and a roof which incorporated iron railway lines, was very strong but it leaked badly and continually crumbled.   Getting rid of this verandah was our first job.   We hired a contractor to do the job, and it took them days as they had to cut through iron bars and grills, and dismantle columns which were not fixed to the floor.    We felt sorry for the contractors, who under quoted for a job they will never forget in a hurry. 

 As money was tight we built a simple lightweight construction with a straight roof and reused the plate glass windows which were tinted.    Much of our time was spent in this very large enclosed verandah, drinking coffee and wine, looking at the changing colours of the water and the sky, plus watching people walk past on the footpath.

 The new owners have knocked down our enclosed verandah, which after nearly forty years was starting to look very tired.   However nothing has happened in the seven months since, except part of the fence has also been knocked down, and it would appear that the front door is missing, and has been boarded up, and the window/door on the left has been knocked out, and left open.  When I enlarge the photograph I could see inside the room.   It was quite possible the blue stone started to crumble when they took the window out.   In fact I vaguely remember filling in a deep crack above that window.  Did vandals break the front door?   One of the side leadlight panels is missing.

 My nephew, Neville, who took the recent photos during his trip to Adelaide, said that it appeared no work has taken place for some time.   He was quite taken aback by the mess, as he last saw the house when we lived in it.   He also helped us with the dismantling of the old front verandah.

The view below, through the walls of the garage, shows that the old corrugated iron covered room at the back has been removed, and also the shower room beside it.   Not a great loss for sure.    But when I enlarged the photograph, I could see through the passageway to the front door.  So no back door.

And now back to October, 1997.   A view of the central passage way, looking towards the back door.   On  the lower part of the wall, there was embossed pressed paper, in perfect condition.

The magnificent front door.  I stripped the paint off it, and then put a type of varnish on it.  The front door is now missing as is the right hand side window.

The very ornate plaster ceiling in the front hallway.

One end of our enclosed front verandah.   There was a small bedroom at the end of it.

When we sold the house we had established a front lounge, a back lounge, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, laundry and main bedroom.    A kitchen that had been tacked on behind the bathroom became a bedroom, and there were three rooms plus shower room at the back of the house. 

There was much trial and error when we completed the renovations.   And we gained a lot of skills.  A Greek friend, an electrician, helped Walter rewire the house.   Walter did all the hard work, such as crawling about above the ceiling.   The mains electrical connection to the house was so corroded and dangerous the electricity company took the connection away as a show piece.   We had floors sanded and polished, and lay new carpet in some of the rooms.  A painter came in and spray painted the walls and ceilings, plus any furniture that was uncovered.   I filled in the window frames and door frames that had been eaten away by white ants.   We repaired the damaged plaster ceilings.   We had the doors dipped in acid and varnished.   Over three years I painted the eaves.

The marble fireplace in the front lounge.

The back bay window,  a very sunny spot during the mornings.   I filled the window sills with concrete and smoothed them over so they looked as if they were wooden still.   It would have been an interesting exercise for anyone trying to replace the windows.   The ceiling above the windows crashed down one day, due to white ant damage, followed by water damage.   For those readers who do not live in Australia, white ants, or termites, eat the wood but leave the paint, and it takes some time to realise that there is no wood under the paint. 

A view of the outside of the bay window. 

A view of the back of the house, between the Doctor's Surgery and garage.   The walls of the garage have been left standing due to the garage being on the edge of the footpath.   Only the roof and back wall have been taken down to allow heavy equipment into the backyard.    If the side walls or surgery are taken down then the boundary wall would have to be built further in towards the house.

A view of the back of the property, with the Doctor's Surgery, which we converted into a flat, on the left, and the old garage, on the right.    Our yellow VW Combivan is parked on the side of the road.   The photograph was taken in October, 1987.

The view from our front verandah, in 1987.   Perfection.    It was a very busy carpark during the summer weekends.

Although it is a little sad to see our former home in a very dilapidated state, it is still only a building.   And whatever happens to the property, eventually people will live there who will enjoy being on the Esplanade.   We enjoyed owning, renovating and living in the house, and all our hard was also enjoyed for nearly thirty years, by the people who bought the house from us.

And there was no doubt that the money we earned on the house meant we were then mortgage free, and enabled us to eventually own two houses.    An excellent investment.