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Some significant new photographic evidence, together with more accurate dating of previously known photographs, fairly convincingly makes the case that the Graythwaite mansion was constructed in three stages:
Stage 1: Thomas Walker built a brick and shingle cottage with stone outbuildings in the 1830s
Stage 2: Edmond Sayers added a substantial two storey sandstone building around in 1854
Stage 3: Thomas Dibbs demolished the Walker cottage to make way for a major sandstone addition to the Sayer's building around 1875.
The building we see today is a combination of the 1854 Sayers home to the left of the main entrance, the 1875 Dibbs buildings behind and to the right of the entrance, and at least one of Walker's 1830s stone outbuildings to the rear.
Like many Nineteenth Century buildings, the sequence and timing of the construction of Graythwaite is poorly documented. The Terry Kass History of Graythwaite refers to evidence that Thomas Walker had built a home on the site sometime before 1838, that a larger home appeared to be in evidence in 1867 and that there were two possible periods of major building by Thomas Dibbs in 1875 and 1882. Kass comments that a lot more work needed to be done to discover the history of the house, particularly between 1830 and the 1860s.
Recently descendants of Edmund Sayers, who bought the property in 1853, have provided some historic photographs of the house, together with a description of one of the photographs by the grandson of Edmund Sayers. In addition, it has been possible to more accurately date some of the later panoramas showing the house, in part using a botanist to estimate the growth rates of specific trees and other items vegetation shown in both dated and undated photographs.
| The photograph here shows Graythwaite/ Euroka during the time of Sayers' occupation (1852-1867). The photograph shows a brick cottage with a shingle roof attached to a large two storey sandstone building. Edmund Sayers' grandson describes the cottage as being Walker's original house, which his grandparents used as the kitchen and servants' quarters. The Sayers family says that the large sandstone building was built by Edmund Sayers shortly after he bought the property in 1853. It corresponds to the wing of today's building to the left of the main entrance door. The bay window that is visible, was extended from a single storey to a double storey structure by Dibbs. |
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Edmund Sayers grandson says that the old Walker cottage was demolished by Dibbs when he substantially extended the home. It would be interesting to know whether any remnant of it remains within the existing structure.
Thomas Dibbs bought the property in 1873 but it appears to have gone unoccupied until 1875 when his brother George took up residence. The Kass history ascribes two periods of renovation to Dibbs, the first based on a substantial jump in the value of the property in the 1875 rate books and the second to the fact that Dibbs took out a very large mortgage on the property in 1882. Certainly given the two year gap between purchase in 1873 and occupation in 1875 it makes sense that major building works were carried out in 1874-75.
However, for some reason it seems to have crept into lore that the house as we know it dates from this 1882 mortgage. This appears to be incorrect.
There are two clearly dated panoramas taken from Holterman's Tower that show the grounds of Graythwaite but not the buildings. These photographs can be conclusively dated to 1875 and 1892. The 1875 photographs show evidence of recent fairly extensive work in the grounds of the property including timber fences erected around young trees and some apparent quarrying activity.
Two other series of panoramic photographs have come to light that were taken at almost the same time, one by Charles Bayliss and the other by Charles Kerry.
Both of these panoramas show the Graythwaite mansion as we know it today.
Comparing the vegetation, including the figs, bamboo and willows, in these panoramas with the same plants in the 1875 and 1892 panoramas and also taking into account when various of the houses shown were built suggests a date of 1884-86. Interestingly this dating coincides with the death of Holterman in 1885. There has been some conjecture that Holterman deliberately did not show Graythwaite in the earlier photos taken from his tower.
While the Kerry photos do not show the kitchen and servants wing of Graythwaite, the Bayliss photo clearly does. What we see is a building almost completely covered in either ivy or Virginia creeper, a far cry from the totally clean wall shown in the prominent photo of Graythwaite with the various generations of the Dibbs family on its different levels. It has been estimated that the extent of the vine growth on the building would have taken around ten years. This implies a construction date for the Dibbs extensions of no later than 1874-76, which coincides almost exactly with the sharp increase in value in the 1875 rate books.
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Graythwaite circa 1885.
Note the heavy growth of vines on the kitchen wing at right |
The 1882 mortgage appears to relate to quite different activities by Thomas Dibbs. He was a major land owner and developer on the lower North Shore
And was very active in various property deals at about this time. It was also not long after this mortgage was taken out that he built Kailoa for his son and a number of homes for his daughters, which are now used by Shore as boarding houses.
Conclusion
The Graythwaite mansion was constructed in three stages:
Stage 1: Thomas Walker built a brick and shingle cottage with stone outbuildings in the 1830s
Stage 2: Edmond Sayers added a substantial two storey sandstone building around 1854
Stage 3: Thomas Dibbs demolished the Walker cottage to make way for a major sandstone addition to the Sayer's building around 1875.
The building we see today is a combination of the 1854 Sayers home to the left of the main entrance, the 1875 Dibbs buildings behind and to the right of the entrance, and at least one of Walker's 1830s stone outbuildings to the rear.
Tim Hughes
10 December 2002
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