Kuyulu Köşk (Kuyulu Mansion) (İzmir Research and Application Center)

Kuyulu Köşk (Kuyulu Mansion) (İzmir Research and Application Center)

Located next to the Big House, this building is also known as the 'Well House' or 'English Club'. The oldest owner of this house that can be seen in the records is James La Fontaine, grandson of James Whittall (1819-1863), owner of the Great House. With the death of James La Fontaine, who was the owner of the building known as La Fontaine Mansion today and used as the Dean of the Faculty of Education of Ege University until a while ago, both buildings passed to his wife Clara Lillian La Fontaine (Keyzer) and their children Rhoda, Rodney and Audrey. The square in front of Well House was in old Bornova, an important meeting point of Bornova social life in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The neighbors sitting on the porches outside the garden gates of the houses in the square chatted both with each other and with passers-by. Men who came to the English Club, which included playing rooms as well as reading rooms, would sit at small tables in front of the door and spend time. The building, which was used as a social center where British families came together in the later period, was also called the Well House because of the cistern next to it. The building, which was left to the children of Clara Lillian La Fontaine after her death in 1959, was purchased for the university in 1966. The garden behind the building was integrated with the garden of the university rectorate after sales. The mansion, which was transferred to the Republic of Turkey Finance Treasury in 1990, was allocated to the use of Ege University.