Adeline Turner Cottage at 37 Head Street in Sumner

When I was researching Head Street in Sumner I came across several articles about a house at 37 Head Street that was a rest home for nurses. It went under a few names. There was one entry where it was called Adeline Turner Cottage. When it was opened in March 1920 it was called Adeline Rest Cottage. It was described as a rest home for hospital and district nurses. It was run by the Christchurch Hospital Lady Visitors Association. Adeline Turner was an active member of this association. Adeline was a hospital visitor for 36 years and her name Adeline meant noble. There was an obituary for Adeline Turner in 1938. When I was looking for information about Adeline I realised that I had already researched her family. Her sister Kassie was a nurse who had died in 1922 aged 58. There was an article where Adeline said that so many nurses were overworked and exhausted especially during the influenza outbreak that she wanted to have somewhere for them to be able stay and have a break. Adeline came from a well known family and her father was Charles Wesley Turner. The various family trees on the ancestry website are confusing and not helped by the family names being repeated throughout the generations. I have at least one friend on my facebook who is related to this family.

Most of the entries on Papers Past relate to fundraising for the cottage and thank you letters from nurses. In 1969 the cottage was put up for sale as the association said that there was no longer any interest in nurses wanting to use it. After this article there was a letter to the editor from a nurse. The letter said that none of the nurses at the hospital were aware of this cottage and if they had been aware of it they would have used it.

It was still sold and the money from the sale of the cottage went into a fund called Adeline Turner Fund. I couldn’t find a photo of the cottage and street view from google maps was of no help. The house was demolished and I am not sure if it was demolished before or after the earthquakes. I did find an image of the cottage from a real estate ad in the 1990s and it was rather bigger that a cottage.