Tadmor House and Hall on Great South Road in Manurewa are to be deconstructed.
Both properties are unsafe because of asbestos, dangerous mould and overall poor condition.
Manurewa Local Board chair Matt Winiata says some people may be disappointed, but the move will turn the site into a park.
“The Manurewa Senior Citizen’s Club has advocated to retain the hall, but our advice is that it would be irresponsible and dangerous to the members to allow them to operate from the site.”
Because the buildings needed extensive work and had suffered severe water damage, the board asked council staff to look at options.
Tadmor House closed last year and options for it and the hall went to the board in September, with the board indicating a preference for deconstruction and reinstating the area in grass.
Winiata says returning the area to grass honours the intentions of the Barrett family, who in 1960 gifted the land to the community to be enjoyed as a park.
The Manurewa Senior Citizens Club lease expired in 2017 but continued on a month-to-month basis and is now being terminated.
Winiata says records show Annie Barrett was a keen gardener who moved to the property and extensively planted it to create a peaceful space, so that “her valuable property should be preserved for all time, as a place where people can relax and enjoy the beauty so lavishly supplied by nature.”
The mayor of the borough of Manurewa, Harry Beaumont, went on record at the time of the gifting to express his and the community’s gratitude for the gift.
He wrote that her long life had been lived in a Christian manner ‘from which all her goodness springs’, and that he was sure people would enjoy and rest in the park for years to come.
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