The Gate House in real life

[Dave-K]

Hi all,

I did a search and couldnt find any answer to my question, there are so many posts about the estate to scroll through.

What was the gate house used for in real life? Servants quarters? Overflow of guests?

thanks

[Pahonu]

Hi all,

I did a search and couldnt find any answer to my question, there are so many posts about the estate to scroll through.

What was the gate house used for in real life? Servants quarters? Overflow of guests?

thanks

It was for the servants. The first floor had two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, kitchen, laundry room, and single car garage. The second floor had three bedrooms, a bathroom, and another living room. It was designed in such a way that the female staff could be upstairs, separated from the male staff below, other than a shared kitchen, laundry, and garage. The door by the main gate led to the living room of the male servant’s living room, allowing convenient access to the gate for allowing visitors in. There was a second door, on the opposite side of the structure from the drive, that led to a staircase up to the second floor for the female servants. The kitchen had an exterior door as well and a door from the male staff living room. The laundry room was accessed from the garage, which had no door.

Many years later, the gate house was renovated into an apartment on the first floor.

https://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopi ... start=2385

[Dave-K]

Thanks for the detailed information and links for further reading
cheers
Dave

[Pahonu]

Thanks for the detailed information and links for further reading
cheers
Dave

No worries, enjoy!

I forgot to add that it seems that Eve Anderson would often stay in the renovated apartment on the first floor of the gate house when she opened the estate for benefits. The main house became very delapidated over the years, including several roof leaks and severe wood rot. This information was provided by a former member from old newspaper articles. The same member found the newspaper articles about Pahonu’s construction too.

https://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopi ... start=1620

The poor condition of the main house at the time of the sale was attested to by another former member who knew someone who had toured the property as a prospective buyer. He actually had some artifacts from it he posted here, including a balcony finial and some other things. He said that his friend wasn’t even allowed inside the main house because of safety concerns about rotting beams and floorboards. He took photos all over the property and it was really run down, sadly.

[Aloha Friday]

It looked kind of rough during the filming of magnum, pi back in the 1980s. On small TV screens it looked like a legit millionaire writer's estate. Today, with large high definition TVs, you can see lots of faults. I would have still liked to have seen it before it was torn down though.

[Pahonu]

It looked kind of rough during the filming of magnum, pi back in the 1980s. On small TV screens it looked like a legit millionaire writer's estate. Today, with large high definition TVs, you can see lots of faults. I would have still liked to have seen it before it was torn down though.

Sorry you didn’t get to see it in its glory days, but the gatehouse is still there along with the boathouse. Both are probably harder to see with the new construction though. The most severe lack of maintenance seemed to happen after the show. It seems that the 90’s weren’t too bad, but by the early 2000’s, people were beginning to post significant problems, such as tarps on the roof and balconies to prevent water infiltration and crumbling plaster and rotting wood. All that, and the breaking up of the sea walls started causing concerns among fans here on the forum.

A few years before the sale, a new roof was put on, I’m assuming to prevent complete failure of the main house, but significant damage was already done leading to the demolition after the sale. Many forum members were angered by the demolition, and wanted to place blame in many places, but the condition of the main house was sadly beyond repair after almost three decades of neglect. The real value of the property by then was the location of the land and no longer the formerly beautiful home itself.

[lhowser1]

I've just been by the Estate. It looks like both the gate house (which can barely be seen anymore) and boat house have a new face lift - new paint, looks like new roofing, etc