The John Maltass House, Bornova

The John Maltass House, on the N side of Gençlik Caddesi, Bornova (formerly Bournabat), NE side of Izmir (formerly Smyrna), Turkey.
The home of John Maltass and his descendants.
It has a beautiful entrance gateway.

Name

The convention with these Levantine houses is to change the name of the house with every owner.
So this house has had many names, including the "Wood-Paterson House" and the "Mattheys House" and the "Steinbüchel House".
The current name and usage is the Arkas Arcademia, and may change again.
So picking the "John Maltass House" as the name is as good as any.

John Maltass

The house was built by John Maltass (born 1764, married in 1805, died 1842).
[Kalcas, 1983, p.10] says the builder was John Maltass, father of Eugenie Maltass.
The architect who restored the house, Seda Özen Bilgili, estimates it was built around 1780. This is a bit too early for John Maltass (born 1764). He was only a teenager then. Note his father died in 1782.
When Buck Whaley visits the Maltass family in Dec 1788, he leaves them to set off from Smyrna to Constantinople. Young Mr. Maltass (probably John Maltass) accompanies him to (or part of the way to) Bournabat, where Whaley pays for accomodation from an Italian lady. She charges a massive sum of £5 for one night. So clearly the Maltass house does not exist or he would have stayed there.
Conclusion: John Maltass built the house after 1788, maybe around 1790.
Some other sources say the house was built in 1860. But Seda Özen Bilgili says parts of it are much older. That date is also too late for this John Maltass. More likely the house was enlarged and modified around 1860.

The house was inherited by John Maltass' daughter Eugenie Maltass (born 1811, married 1839, died 1886) who married Dr. Charles Wood.
Home of her daughters Louisa and Hortense and Lucy Wood .
The house was called the "Wood-Paterson House".
Kemal Ataturk used the house as his headquarters in 1922 on his victorious arrival in Smyrna, when his army expelled the Greeks and destroyed Smyrna.

After 1922

The house was inherited through Lucy Wood's daughter Renée de Cramer who married Alfred Lawson.
Renée had died in 1918, before her mother, but her daughter's family inherited the house.
Inherited by her daughter Thetis Lawson who married Tony Mattheys.
It became known as the "Mattheys House".
Inherited by their daughter Renée Mattheys who married Max Steinbüchel.
The house became called the "Steinbüchel House".
The family still lived there at the time of [Kalcas, 1983].
At some point they moved out.
The house fell into decay.

Restoration

It was spectacularly restored as the Arkas Arcademia.
Restoration by architect Seda Özen Bilgili. See her posts.
It opened in 2023. It is open to the public.
See [Kalcas, 1983, pp.10-12].
See levantineheritage.com.
See erolsasmaz.com main page and restoration.
See Turkish wikipedia.

The John Maltass House.
See image. Click to play.
Video 2023 by Arkas Sanat Bornova.

Location

Location of the John Maltass House (red marker) on the N side of Gençlik Caddesi (Gençlik Road).
And "The Big House" (the Rektörlügü) on the S side of the road.
The gate of the John Maltass House is at the junction to the W of the house.
The junction here was in fact the old main square of Bornova, where five roads met.
From Google Maps.

Plan of the house and grounds after restoration.
From Arkas Arcademia.

Street view showing the John Maltass House from 82nd St at the NW side of the house.
This is during the time (2014) when the house and outbuilding were in a ruined state.
They have since been beautifully restored.
Click to rotate. From street view.

Before restoration

An old family photo at the front door.
Posted by Seda Özen Bilgili who restored the house.

The John Maltass House.
See full size. From [Kalcas, 1983].

The front before the restoration.
See full size.
Posted 2018 by Seda Özen Bilgili who restored the house.
See other shot uploaded 2021 at grandeflanerie.com.