In 1996 the Christchurch City Council purchased an inner city site
bounded by Worcester Boulevard, Montreal and Gloucester Streets
on which to build a new art gallery.
Among the occupants there has been a school, a church, a motor
dealership and many notable residents including architects, musicians,
teachers and other professionals. Had history taken a different
turn there would also have been a School of Art.
Beginnings
The earliest occupants, as with the rest of inner Christchurch
west of the Avon River, were Maori. For centuries kainga had been
established and all the land in the vicinity was utilised for
food gathering and in some instance, places of burial.
By 1850 this area was no longer intensely occupied by Maori although
evidence of their history there remained. With the arrival of
European settlers the shape of what was really no more than rough
dunes was to change.
Early in 1851 the Canterbury Association began subdivision of
Christchurch into town sections numbered and allotted to early
colonists. The new art gallery site originally comprised eight
town sections, lots 386 - 393. Of these lots 386, 387, 389, 391
and 393 were granted to Mr. Robert Chapman and 388, 390 and 392
to the Church Property Trustees.
For almost twenty years this land remained unoccupied as fenced
rough ground until 1871 when sections 387 and 389, on the corner
of Montreal and Gloucester Streets, were acquired by George and
Sibella Ross for their Preparatory Boys day and boarding school.
Over the following 68 years the two-storey corrugated
iron house with its distinctive three-storey tower was a landmark
on this corner.
Often dubbed the 'tin house' it was also named by pupils of the
school the 'tin castle' or, because of its lattice paned windows,
the 'tin prison.'
Although both George and Sibella Ross initially shared responsibility
for the school, it was generally known as Mrs. Ross' school.
George and Sibella Ross
Even though he performed a lesser role in the school, George Arthur
Emileus Ross (1829 - 1876) was an important early Canterbury identity.
Born in Edinburgh he was the youngest son of Edward D. Ross and
Euphemia Gardner. Following his formative education he continued
his studies at Oxford University but the strain of study and over-work
took their toll and before completing his degree, Ross had a serious
breakdown.
In an attempt to restore his health he decided to leave England
for New Zealand where a distant relative, the Reverend James Wilson,
had gone to live in Christchurch. Ross arrived at Lyttelton on
board the Fatima on 27 December 1851 and soon after was offered
a cadetship on T. H. Tancred's Malvern Hills station.
Within a short time Ross also developed an interest in local politics
and in 1853 he became the first Clerk of the Provincial Council,
a position he held for five years. The following year he purchased,
in partnership with Charles Harper, the Waireka station which
lay between the Hawkins and Selwyn Rivers. Over the next decade
or so they purchased several other properties and engaged in other
land ventures with disastrous consequences.
By 1858 Ross had become the elected member for Rakaia in the Provincial
Government. However, that year he also became ill again and stayed
with James Wilson and his family at Dallatur St. Martin's to recuperate.
James Wilson (1831 - 1886) later archdeacon of Akaroa was educated
at Edinburgh Academy and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1837 he
married Sibella Anne Morison who soon after began to develop poor
health. By 1850 she was advised to seek a better climate. Early
in 1851 Wilson, his wife and family of five daughters sailed for
New Zealand on the Isabella Hercus which arrived at Lyttelton
on 1 March.
The family settled at St. Martins, where Wilson developed a farm
named Dallatur, and his name was given to the road, which ran
past his property. It was while he was recovering his health that
Ross got to know Sibella the eldest daughter of the Wilson family,
who was then just 18. They became engaged in December 1858 and
were married on 2 March the following year at the temporary church
which stood close to the Christchurch Wharf on the Heathcote River.
After their marriage George and Sibella Ross lived at Waireka
station. There was no homestead only a woolshed and they occupied
two rooms screened off in this.
Despite the primitive conditions, and being a six hour ride from
Christchurch, Waireka was on the main road west and the Ross family
were never short of visitors. Over the following few years the
family also began to grow and George and Sibella Ross were eventually
to have a family of eight children.
In 1862, with the potentially better prospect in sight, Ross and
Harper sold Waireka to purchase Lake Coleridge station. They also
took over the lease on the Mt. Algidus, Mt. Fourpeaks and Clayton
stations and Ross held 28 hectares at West Melton.
From 1863 to 1865 he was part of the Executive of the Provincial
Government as Provincial Treasurer. It was in honour of this office
that his name was given to the Westland goldmining town 31km south
of Hokitika which bears it to this day. The early 1860s were good
years for the Ross family but George Ross was overcommitted. He
was not a good businessman and financial trouble began to loom.
The winter of 1867 was disastrous for back country runholders,
with heavy snow falls and large stock losses, and Harper and Ross
suffered badly with the result that Ross was declared bankrupt.
The strain was once again too much and he had total physical and
mental collapse and was too ill to appear at the court hearing
in January 1868.
The family moved to live at Broomfield, Archdeacon Wilson's property
at Upper Riccarton where Ross could restore his health. Wilson
decided to give the Ross family a new start. He purchased a site
on the corner of Peterborough and Montreal streets on which he
had a small school built that would be run by his daughter Sibella
and George Ross jointly.
Mrs
Ross's School, October 1872.
Photograph courtesy of Canterbury Museum |
Having a sick husband, it was clear that Sibella had to take
over the burden of the family and support her seven children.
Mrs. Ross' Preparatory School for Boys, as it was known, opened
in February 1869 with seven pupils, mostly boarders. All except
one were members of the Knight family. The other was the son
of
architect Frederick Strouts.
During the first year, the school was successful and in 1870
new dormitories were added. However, a more central location
was sought,
and in 1871 Wilson assisted his daughter and son-in-law once
again and purchased land on the corner of Gloucester and Montreal
Streets
on which to relocate the school. Slowly the distinctive corrugated
iron building rose on the site and the more recently constructed
dormitories were moved from Peterborough Street and positioned
beside the Ross house facing Montreal Street, linked by a covered
passage way.
By January 1872 all was ready for the first term
which commenced on 26 February. As well as George and Sibella
Ross the school
had two assistants, Gertrude Coward and Basil K. G. Lawrence,
who for many years also lived with the Ross family. In 1875
the
school had an outbreak of measles and the top room of the
tower was made into an isolation hospital. Sibella Ross was also
ill
that year and George Ross' health began to decline. It did
not improve greatly thereafter with the result that he died
on 23
November 1876 aged 48. At his death he left a 36 year old
widow,
four sons and four daughters all in their adolescence. Sibella
continued running the school until the end of 1877. A former
pupil
George Mannering stated in his autobiography that 'she was
much loved by the boys'.
After closing the school she let the empty dormitories to lodgers.
In one of the smaller empty rooms dances were held fortnightly
between 7.30 - 10.30pm. The closure of the Ross school encouraged
the Reverend Charles Turrell to move his school for gentlemen
at Riccarton back into town and in December 1881 he moved in
next
door to Sibella Ross in Gloucester Street.
Sibella Ross' four sons entered various professions and the
daughters became teachers. By 1900 all but Euphemia and Rachel
were married.
Both sisters remained living with their mother up until the time
of her death. Rachel Ross was a music teacher and for many years
sub-organist at Christchurch Cathedral. Sibella Ross died at
her
home on 7 September 1929 aged 89 years and was buried in St.
Peters Churchyard, Riccarton.
Her obituary in the Christchurch
Times described her as, 'a cultured woman with wide sympathies
and a serene and tolerant outlook
on
life. Her charming personality won for her many friends.' As
the Ross property had been held in trust as part of Archdeacon
Wilson's
estate since 1886 it had to be sold. On 17 December 1929 it was
offered for sale at public auction and was purchased for £5,600
by Canterbury College as a potential site for a new art school.
The
Board of Governors of Canterbury College had had the idea of
establishing a separate art school building for some time
but
only in 1929 had they decided to put it into effect.
A New School of Art
By the late 1920s expansion in the roll at Canterbury College
School of Art led to a critical shortage of space and there was
also a keenness on the part of the Director Richard Wallwork that
the school should be relocated in a new building established as
a separate school. His efforts it seemed were to be rewarded,
but by 1930 the economic depression started to be felt and the
prospect of a new school being built began to retreat.
Meantime the Ross property was used as a hostel for a short time
before being demolished and the land reverted once more to rough
ground. In 1936 prospects for a new art school began to return
and preliminary sketch plans were drawn up but there were further
delays and nothing was resolved.
Elevation
of the proposed New Art School Building 1948.
Courtesy of University of Canterbury |
With the outbreak of War in 1939 the chances of a new art school
being built became more remote. However, in 1948 hope returned
and the architect George A. J. Hart was invited to prepare plans
for a 1350m2 building that would face Gloucester Street.
By March, approval to build had been given by the Christchurch
City Council, and the Minister of Education, T. H. McCombs, but
a decision to relocate certain University departments to Ilam
changed these plans. By December 1949 the Director of Education
declared that only one building project could be afforded and
a new School of Engineering had greater priority. The idea of
a new art school was abandoned.
Early in 1950 the School of Art was made a special school within
the University and could no longer be considered independent.
This changed forever the opportunity to use the Ross property
and the Minister of Education instructed the University Council
to hand over this site for other educational purposes.
The University Council co-operated and the rough ground was levelled
and asphalted for use by Christchurch Girls' High School as tennis
courts. The historian T. E. Carter wrote in 'A History of the
University of Canterbury' that "in terms of real estate they
were the most expensive as well as the most ugly tennis courts
in Christchurch."
These courts were to dominate the Gloucester/Montreal Street corner
until 1987 when they were acquired with other properties for redevelopment
as a site for a major tourist hotel.
Once more this corner awaits a new identity.
Neil Roberts
Senior Curator
References
- G. R. MacDonald - Dictionary
of Canterbury Biographies, (Canterbury Museum)
- G. Mannering
- Eighty Years in New Zealand, 1943 Simpson & Williams
- A
History of the University of Canterbury 1873 - 1973 University
of Canterbury
- 'Christchurch Times' - 11 August 1929
p3
|
