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OKEY HOUSE The
museum’s first historically significant building, Okey House, is
an example of housing design at the turn of the 20th
Century. The house was originally sited on a property on Franklin
Drive where McLachlan Road now exists [the entrance to the Village
Green estate]. Okey
house was built in the early 1930’s from hardwood timbers from the
original Mudgeeraba Hotel – the Hampshire Terrace Hotel. This
house was donated and relocated to the museum site by Baldwin
Riverlands Pty Ltd in December 2005 with a donation towards the
costs of restoration. A
Briar Rose that was growing in front of Okey House when it was
situated on Franklin Drive, is thought to have been planted in a
Mudgeeraba garden more than 80 years ago. It has been planted at the
Museum and will become a timeless sweet symbol of the years of the
Pioneers to be remembered. There
was some discussion on the correct spelling for the house and after
some investigation and assistance from the Franklin family; we
discovered that it is “Okey” house. An old newspaper clipping
was found and also records of horse events that states that it is
Okey. The
house consists of a lounge room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom,
toilet and laundry with a verandah across the front. There is a
corrugated iron stove covering on the side of the house. The house was completely repainted inside and out, and the windows were reglazed and rehung. The restoration of the house was completed by working from a restoration management plan compiled by architects experienced in this type of work. Each of the rooms in Okey house has displays set up with items of reminiscent of the era of the house. |
