Adam and Eve's Gardens looking north towards what is now Dene House Rd.
The town's first flower show was held here in 1852. The pub was run by the Fair family until 1908 when it was taken over by Frank Marriott who ran it until 1932 when he transferred the licence to the new Red Star Hotel in Station Rd, near the railway station.
Photograph before 1906
The gardens which had been laid out by Colin Fair on land leased from Lord Londonderry opened to the public in May 1829. The house, though possibly habitable, does not appear to have been completed at this time as it is described in 1831 as almost complete when the Dene flooded in 1831, young Ralph who had been alone in the house narrowly escaping with his dog and his fiddle.
Colin left Seaham to live in Hawthorn in 1838 and the gardens (pub?) were taken over by his son Ralph (1813-1879) who had previously been the landlord of the Ship Inn in North Railway Street.
In the 1841 census, Ralph is described as a gardener and the house as "Garden House" the earliest record I have of a public house on this site is sometime between 1849 and 1851 though Ralph is still listed as a gardener/seedsman.
The original name of the pub was almost certainly the Pear Tree but it very soon became known as Adam & Eve's because of the two ship's figureheads of Neptune and Arethusa which stood in the gardens and were mistakenly nicknamed Adam & Eve by locals.
The pub and gardens were held in such high esteem by Lord Londonderry that he left instructions that so long as the Fair family lived there they should do so rent free.
This photograph is most likely of Ralph senior in the late 1870s but there is a slight possibility that it is of his son Ralph D Fair and taken in the 1890s.
The elder brother of Ralph senior emigrated to America where he did very well in business, became a Senator and his daughter married into the fabulously wealthy Vanderbilt family so all descendants of the Fair family are related to the Vanderbilts.
The man standing in doorway is unlikely to be Ralph Fair, born 1813. It is more likely to be his son Ralph D Fair born 1840 who was never landlord but listed here as a gardener when his mother Jane was licencee in the 1880s and 90s after his father's death. This would place the picture as around 1895-1900.
It is also possible that he is Ralph's younger son Thomas, born 1856 who became landlord around 1900 and was licencee until 1910.
Colour by D Angus
