JosipCro wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 6:51 pm
Pahonu wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 5:16 pm
JosipCro wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 6:43 am
I saw it in a FB group. So I decided to ask you ...
Thanks a lot for this information!
No problem. I went through the document thoroughly when it was first released and it has so much interesting information. I think its size is daunting for many members at nearly 400 pages, but I highly recommend going through it. Pages 54 and 64 have some interesting photos and page 76 has an informative timeline. Page 218 starts the story of the creation of Pahonu. Starting on 245 is a description of all the structures on the property, including something I had never seen before in all my research. The so named feature 4, located at the southeastern part of the property, on the opposite end of the wall from the gate house along the highway. It is referred to as a series of terraces. Why it was constructed, I don’t know. Anyway, enjoy and if you ever want to discuss something about it let me know. There haven’t been any other forum members that showed any interest in the past.
WoW feature 4 ! Never heard of it, until now. As much as sometimes I think I know the property from the outside (somewhat from the inside), there is still something that impresses me!
Any photos of feature 4?
Some opinion?
There are photos of all the numbered features after page 245. They include feature 4, but it’s pretty over grown as was much of the estate. You can see what appear to be steps but overall it doesn’t really look like much. I do wonder what it was originally for and how it looked. This report was completed and published after the sale and demolition of the main house and bathing pavilion, so the photos show only the remains of those two buildings and the other structures in disrepair. You can see some old terracotta tile still from the slab parts of the main house foundation and some wood covering the basement area. Once Mrs. Anderson secured the legal right for the sea walls to remain, as a large part of them are not actually on the property but government land, the sale went through and this study commenced.
I don’t know the page, but somewhere in there
is the earliest known aerial photo of the estate, from 1949 I believe it was. It doesn’t help much with figuring out feature 4. The area had lots of foliage then as well. Perhaps it was just a shaded terrace area protected from the wind. As someone who lives right at the coast, I know first hand that it can make a relaxing afternoon much less so if the onshores are particularly strong or persistent. It’s a circumstance that many who don’t live in such an area probably give much thought to. Many homes today have large glass panels on balconies and terraces to allow for the view but protect from the winds. That wasn’t really an architectural option in the 1930’s. They didn’t have air conditioning technology either… but they sure could make use of those winds, and Pahonu’s architect sure did.
If the onshore winds were really blowing, the only exterior protected areas on the estate would be the front and rear courtyards, shielded by the main house one-story ell, and the rear courtyard wall. That wall is about 5-6 feet tall unlike the lower front courtyard wall we are all so familiar with. Neither of these courtyards had much foliage for shade though. This feature 4 would have been protected from the wind by both the main house and the rear parking court wall. It also had large trees for shade. That’s just speculation on my part, but there certainly is evidence of wind protection in both the original design of the main house and later the tennis court. The front courtyard has the covered terrace adjacent the arched arcade, and the upper balcony over that arcade is turned 90 degrees to the ocean. That’s not a coincidence, I believe. The tennis court has the wind-protection fabric on its north fence facing the ocean so as not to take the onshore winds straight on. That tennis court isn’t in the 40’s photo, by the way.
Sorry that got long!
I have never seen (or noticed) this photos of the main house until now, namely, I saw this photos when scrolling through Google Maps images from the Shriners Club, by all accounts it could be said that someone climbed the wall that separates the property and the Shriners Club and using the Zoom option on the camera took this photos, take a look!
... I meant the house by the road
