ALL that was missing was an elephant meandering through its gardens and a waiter pouring glasses of iced tea under a sweeping verandah.
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Plans to revamp Adamshurst reveal a dream to restore the more than 140-year-old property and give it the look of colonial India glory.
The proposals include a rooftop garden giving access to the building’s south-west towers, a library, marbled bathrooms, a sprawling garden and space to host performances, cocktail parties and other community events.
Oh, and a bronzed elephant fountain that spouts water from its trunk in the front garden and a stuffed peacock and panther on show inside.
“We want to restore it as a proper residence with all the unique quality of the facade, which makes it so exciting. It’s India, exotic,” St Matthew’s Archdeacon Peter MacLeod-Miller said.
Father MacLeod-Miller, who bought the 600 square-metre property with his mother and his brother in June, did not want to talk about how much the restorations would cost but he did not flinch when the figure of $500,000 was thrown at him.
“I wouldn’t like to say,” he said. “We want to do the job without putting a limit on it. To get the job right is the important thing.”
Father MacLeod-Miller, with a silver statue of a peacock in one hand and plans in the other, stood underneath an ornate ceiling and chandeliers in the grand front room of Adamshurst.
His mother, Sandra MacLeod-Miller, sat in an antique royal-red chair with their parish friends.
The bar in the next room had been sold that morning for a sum neither seller or buyer would disclose.
The buyer, Holbrook’s Jag’s Cafe owner Gavin Cattle, said he wanted to use the bar in the cafe he was expanding to become a fine-dining restaurant in the next fortnight.
Davis Sanders Homes are managing the development and property manager Rory Nelson said Adamshurst had gone to people who would open it up to the community.
“It was waiting for the right people to pick it up,” he said.
He said the plans would be put before Albury Council in the next fortnight and the building would begin from there.
Mr Nelson has been researching Adamshurst for months and he debunked some of the myths of the property, including an internal staircase up to its towers and trap-doors.
But he said its history was still vague with no photos of the property from its early days and more surprises within its walls were to come.
“There’s still a lot of secrets,” he said.
