xenith | Commandant's House (Reply)

Commandants House. I love that this place isn't presented like the usual old house museum with rooms full of nothing but period furniture usually sourced from elsewhere, which makes it interesting to look through. If you pick the house up and put it elsewhere, it would be worth a visit just on its own.

I can't believe I didn't get a decent photo of the front though. It was evening when I was taking photos around the outside, so I intended to take a proper front shot when I came back the next morning, but it was a bit rushed. I shall see what I can manage with what I have.

The house was home to a series of Civil & Military Commandants, starting I believe with O'Hara Booth in about 1833. Originally it was four rooms, with the entrance in what is now a side wall (righthand side from the front).

Over the years, the building grew extended up the hill. After the settlement closed, it became the Carnarvon Hotel.

Because of the way the house goes up the hill, the central hallway is broken up by stairs.

What really struck me the first time I walked into this foyer, was the wallpaper. I think we tend to think of Victorian colour schemes as being drab, because what we see from then is faded. But this is big and bold. What you see here is a reproduction, but it's copied from a section found during restoration. I think it might have faded since I first saw it too, as I remember it being more orange.

Unfortunately, the dim light plus me being in a hurry means the interior photos are all out of focus, dut it's not that different inside to any other 19th century house

except for the murals

and the random bits missing from the floor and walls to show the changes in construction.

and the rooms with displays rather furniture.

That far room has a display board on each of the commandants who lived in the house.

I've pulled out the one about Boyd because it ties into yesterday's post about the separate prison. 1853 was when transportation ended, so Boyd was obviously overseer of the decline of the prison town.

The position of Civil Commandant was restored in 1853 for Boyd. He had previously worked at Pentonville Prison in London, and was committed to the psychological reform practised there, which was based on silence and isolation of prisoners.

Although there were increasing numbers of 'lunatics' at Port Arthur, Boyd denied that such treatment was responsible. He supervised he building of the 'C' Wing of the Separate Prison designed to hold the violently insane; the Pauper's Mess (1863) and the Asylum in 1868. On several occasions he was openly accused of corruption but no charges were laid and he remained at Port Arthur until his retirement.

Whereas the front, living rooms are about the convict era, the rear rooms, including the kitchen and pantry, are about the hotel era. Even within that division, the rooms are furnished from different eras -- there's a living room from 1874 and a study c. 1840 -- rather than being frozen at one particular point.