Today’s feature on a historic Durban landmark focuses on the Manor House in 14 Nuttall Gardens, Morningside.
Its porticos and colonnades were designed in a Revived English Baroque architectural style, and is a significant Berea landmark near Mitchell Park.
The home was built circa 1904 for sugar baron Sir Liege Hulett, who also built Kearsney House, “a well made and designed mansion with large, furnished reception rooms and 22 bedrooms”.
His property was the first home of Kearsney College until it moved to Botha’s Hill, where it remains.
His use of indentured Indians and “cheap black labour” on his sugar plantations has never been forgotten and he attracted criticism for protesting against the proposed “native labour contingent” being sent to serve in France during World War I. Governor General Sydney Buxton remarked that “The Natal Britisher is a great man to talk of Natal as British to the backbone, but when it comes to helping the Empire in the concrete he pauses if his own interests are involved or affected”.
Mitchell Park also has some significant history. It dates back to 1894 and was a popular outing for the folk living in town, for whom taking “a trip into the country on a horse drawn tram was nothing unusual”.
Mitchell Park is named after Charles Mitchell who was the Governor of Natal.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency says Manor House preserves numerous important details and elements, with “superb woodcraft and magnificent stained glass windows”.
There have been many alterations, including conversion of large lounge to four bedrooms; enclosure of upper verandah, and other alterations to convert the house into a residential hotel/hostel. It was restored and converted for office use in 1992.