30. Rhiador –
68 The Esplanade
This stately home was built in 1861 by ‘The Sandhill Savage’, Mr. Richard Jagoe, a newspaper shipping reporter, quarantine officer and launch fleet operator.
Richard Jagoe was the shipping reporter of the Adelaide daily newspapers for many years, and sometime Assistant Health Officer. Jagoe was often called ‘The Sandhill Savage’ due to the fact that when he took up residence in a shack at the Semaphore to ply his trade, the area was bare sandhills.
Jagoe, of necessity, had to board the arriving ships in the Gulf, so that he might obtain what news was there – especially copies of newspapers obtained at the previous ports visited by the ship. (Newspaper proprietors offered free sets of their recent additions to all seagoing ships on the strict understanding that they would be passed on to other newspaper operators at the next port of call. This was in exchange for papers expected in return. By this method news was freely exchanged without the cost and difficulty of maintaining branch offices or local representatives.)
During the 1930’s, Rhiador housed St. David’s Grammar School, a private school for young gentlemen. The school was commemorated in Geoff Taylor’s book, ‘Sir’, which tells the story of this school and the Signal Station next door.
