The Paper House or Platte Saline, Upper Freedown 1898 to 1945

A series of photographs contained in a folder about The Paper House (1898 – 1945). The pages are numbered 50 to 61.

Platte Saline,  the Paper House, was located at the Upper Freedown in Kingsdown Road and was built by the Evens family.
John and Agnes Evens and their five daughters lived in Canterbury.  When Agnes was widowed in 1897 she bought two properties in St Margaret’s: Holly Lodge in Cripps Lane and land at Upper Freedown along the road to Kingsdown.
In 1898 she built Platt Seline, (named after the family’s favourite beach in Alderney) on 4 acres of downland overlooking the sea to run as an overflow sanitorium for schoolboys from Kings School in Canterbury. It was a house made of compressed paper and card designed by a Mr Alport.  Expected to last for 20 years,  it was still going strong 40 years later.
Many boys spent a happy time here eating homegrown vegetables and enjoying the rural location and care provided by the Evens family.
The only daughter to marry, Agnes, did so in 1904 leaving Janet, Eunice and Mabel to run the operation.
The house was taken over by the military in WW2 and did not survive the war.