Homestead, St Helen's Station, Hanmer Springs

Built in 1917, this fine homestead was unoccupied for much of the 30 year period prior to its purchase in 1979 and subsequent restoration. Its chequered past reflects the fluctuating fortunes experienced by succeeding owners of historic St Helen's Station, established in 1858 on the eastern Hanmer plain.

F J Savill, a wealthy business man with diverse interests, purchased St Helen's and replaced the existing timber dwelling on this site. The Christchurch architects Collins and Harman designed a large comfortable house, freely adapting the low spreading forms associated with the Californian bungalow style. Savill's lifestyle is suggested by the formal planning with kitchen and service rooms discreetly accommodated behind the main areas of the house and the low ceilinged upper rooms for servants' or children's bedrooms approached by an unobtrusive narrow stairway. The construction with 31 centimetre walls from carefully bolstered blocks of cream Hurunui limestone provides a necessary insulation against Hanmer's extreme temperatures.

The homestead which was once the hub of a largely self-contained station community with up to 60 employees is now accompanied by just 50 acres of land. With its mature surrounding gardens now reshaped and groomed, St Helen's homestead is an important reminder of this high country station's interesting past.