ELDERSLEA MANOR HISTORY
The floor plans of Elderslea Manor originated from House number 18 (The House of Magic) at the 1939 New York World's Fair. This was the second largest American world's fair of all time and many countries around the world participated in it. It attracted over 44 million people and it allowed all visitors to take a look at "the world of tomorrow". The plans were brought back to New Zealand and adapted for New Zealand conditions and bay windows added to create the house that still stands today. Dave & Glynis were very pleased to make contact with the grandchildren of the original builder of Elderslea Manor shortly after they moved in and have already been given lots of information and photographs. This information will shortly be uploaded onto the website as we gather more artifacts. Dave & Glynis are keen to continue with their discovery work around the property's history as this is an historic estate house that was originally set on a very large plot extending from Fergusson Drive right down to the river. Hanging in Golders Cottage, one of Upper Hutt's oldest properties (open to the public as a museum on Saturday afternoons), is a map dated 1929 which shows that these properties were next door neighbours. We are just in the process of changing the name of our property back to Acrefield, as this was the name George Woods, the original owner, gave the property when it was built. |