McLeans Mansion

Number 300 on the Heritage Listis the McLean Mansion, well known to Christchurch folk and something of a white elephant in the regenerating city. The mansion was on a size and scale somewhat incongruous with the rest of the demure city, and always struggled to find a purpose in Manchester street. It survived the earthquakes by the skin of it's teeth, not structurally, but politically, and may now, finally be about to come into it's renaissance.

McLean's Mansion Charitable Trust bought the 53 room, 2100m2 building, and its two hectare site in 2017, following a tumultuous recent history and a fascinating past. The trustees, Chris Kissling, Trevor Lord, Brian Cribb and Tim Hogan plan to restore it to it's original 1900 state and use it as an Art Gallery to house some of the collection of Sir James Wallace of the Wallace Trust, which successfully runs Pah Homestead in Onehunga as the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre.

The road to the proposed gallery has been rocky, as the Mansion nearly was no more when the earthquakes damaged it to the extent that the tenants had to move out and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority tried to have it pulled down. Before that it had housed an educational institute called the Christchurch Academy, trainee dental nurses before that, and earlier still elderly widows, according to instructions left by the original owner Mr Allan McLean.

McLean had called the house 'Holly Lea' when he moved in after a 12 month build in 1900. Influences on the build were variously described as Jacobean, Italianate and.... Built on a concrete pad upon piles were three stories of elaborately furnished rooms. It's interior fittings came from a variety of sources including Canterbury and the far reaches of Europe and included carving, silks, and all manner of decoration. When Mr McLean's widows moved out in the 1950s, these fittings were all removed. An amazing stroke of luck for the new Charitble Trust is that they have been found and are apparently in excellent condition. All will be revealed once an estimated 12 million dollars have been found to put the entire puzzle back together.

Watching this space, where odd bits of good news and progress are posted, like the 2020 gift of sculptures by Llew Summers. Meantime, photographs would be welcome.

Image Credit: Schwede66