End of an era for Holly Lodge

It has been a family home, a riverboat terminus, a winery and a tourist destination. Now Papaiti landmark Holly Lodge is up for tender for removal. It has to go, to make way for a road realignment, because the Whanganui River is progressively eating away at its western banks 8km upstream of Wanganui. Holly Lodge, a two storey wooden house of 10-plus rooms, is one of three houses for sale by tender on Papaiti Rd. Also for sale are two pieces of land, one with sheds and glasshouses, and an early woolshed.
A group of Papaiti people are hoping the older buildings will be bought by locals so they can stay in the area.
Holly Lodge is a property well known to many Wanganui people ? mainly because it was open to the public from the 1970s to the 1990s in a range of tourist ventures.
The present house was built between 1901 and 1907 by builder John Randal, for his family of seven children. The first house on the site had been destroyed in a disastrous fire in 1888. After that the Randals lived in a single storey wooden house there, until the larger, grander two-storey house was habitable.
It was named Titchfield, after the family's home town in Hampshire, England.
John Randal's sons worked in the building trade with him at times. The company was responsible for building Upokongaro's church, railway workshops, Riverlands (the home of Joseph Paul), Hillhead at Kai Iwi Beach, St Oswald's Church and many other imposing buildings.
The family owned 2ha of land at Papaiti. They grew peaches, pears, apples, citrus, plums, quinces, mulberries, nuts and figs. Firewood came off the property or down the river in floods.
The children learned to swim in the river and roamed the valley and hills round about. If they wanted to get to town they had to walk or ride the mile downriver to the tram stop.
The family had its own music group, the Tapuaeharuru Musical Society, and gave concerts.
Mr Randal died, aged 91, in 1936.
After that the house was bought by Morris (Morrie) Watson and his wife Miriam and young family. Mr Watson was a horticulturist and had family in nearby Waireka Road.
He pulled out some of the trees and put up glasshouses. The Titchfield name left with the Randals and the Watsons called the house Holly Lodge, because it had a hedge of ornamental English hollies.
Mr Watson grew tomatoes and cut flowers at first, and later started growing grapes and making wine. He built on a room to hold wine tastings. "He used to buy blackberries from the Maoris up the river and his blackberry nip was quite famous," his daughter Valerie Caseley said.
He used water from a very deep bore near the property to make lemonade for sale.
In 1976 Holly Lodge was bought by Norm and Alza Garrett, the former owners of Wanganui's Hospital Shop. They went on making wine and added other ventures to attract tourists. In the hey day of Holly Lodge as a tourist venue it had a swimming pool, a pottery and craft shop, a shop selling homemade porcelain dolls, Geraldo's (Gerald Weekes') Mini Museum, jet boat trips to Hipango Park, wine tasting, meals and daily trips on the riverboat Otunui from the City Marina to the lodge.
In June 1986 there were about nine full-time staff and Mr Garrett estimated 90,000 people, mainly tourists, had visited in the previous 12 months.
Around 1987 the Garretts leased the business to Vance and Mandy Crozier, who operated the rival riverboat Waireka and marketed Deep Well Mineral Water. Friction ensued between the competing riverboats and the lease was terminated.
Next the Garretts leased the business to Bill and Nicole Abbott and David and Beth Berry, who also had big plans for tourist expansion. Their lease didn't work out either, and the Garretts were back in 1989. In 1991 the property was sold to Brian Schofield, and in 1993 he sold part of it to Philip and Heather Kubiak, who made fortified wines.
It was the Kubiaks who sold the property to Wanganui District Council last year, to allow Papaiti Rd to be moved 30m away from the river's edge.
Tenders for Holly Lodge and its neighbouring properties close at 4pm on Wednesday.