Antonio Hall, Heritage building in Riccarton Road, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Antonio Hall is a large mansion on Riccarton Road in Christchurch featuring multiple wings, a chapel, lecture rooms, and accommodation areas. The structure expanded through various renovation phases to serve different purposes.
Thomas Kincaid, a merchant and Christchurch city councillor, had Kilmead built between 1904 and 1909 to designs by Clarkson & Ballantyne. After Kincaid died in 1928, farmer and businessman John Montgomery owned the property until 1946, when Bishop Patrick Lyons bought it for the Holy Name Seminary, staffed by the Society of Jesus. The seminary closed in 1978 and the building became Campion Hall student accommodation.
The name Antonio Hall was given by Patrick and Veronica Luisetti, who ran the house as a boarding house after buying it in 1981; they chose it in memory of their son Anthony, who died in 1975. Earlier names were Kilmead, given by builder Thomas Kincaid, and Campion Hall, used for student accommodation near the University of Canterbury.
The building has been unoccupied since 2011 and its earthquake damage went unrepaired; the overseas owners did not carry out maintenance. After fires in 2017 and 2021, the council began demolition in 2026 under the Building Act, which classed the structure as dangerous and insanitary. The cleared land is to become student accommodation for the University of Canterbury.
The name Antonio Hall dates from 1981, when Patrick and Veronica Luisetti bought the building, ran it as a boarding house and honoured their son Anthony, who had died in 1975. The same year the seminary era ended, the house passed to a Taiwanese-owned company in 1993, after which plans for motel units never happened and decline set in.
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