The house at 126 Forest Lake Road, Hamilton was constructed some time between July 1914 and 31 March 1917 as one of a group of state houses built under the Workers’ Dwellings Act 1910. The group of nine houses, all on the north-west side of Forest Lake Road,, was named the Laurenson Settlement after Liberal Member of Parliament George Laurenson. The Laurenson Settlement was the earliest state housing in Hamilton. The land on which the house was built was first surveyed in 1864 as land grants awarded to the Fourth Regiment of Waikato Militia after the conclusion of the Waikato Wars. It was part of 250 acres (101.25 hectares) awarded to surgeon John Carey of the 4th Waikato Regiment. He farmed the land, naming it Forest Lake after its area of native bush and the small lake, Rotokaeo. Subsequent owners John and Mary Walsh sold nine acres (3.6 hectares) to the Crown in 1912-13 as it was deemed suitable for housing the increasing number of workers associated with the railway activities at Frankton Junction close by. A strip of land on the north-western side of Forest Lake Road was subdivided into 36 lots with two of them designated as roads. The government architect, Woburn Temple, designed a range of workers’ dwellings for erection in several locations around the country. The house is a mirror image of Temple’s Design 7, a simple wooden four-roomed transitional villa with front verandah and a central hallway leading to a kitchen and scullery at the rear. A path that leads from the central front door to the gate at the corner of the property, typical of the front garden layout of the period, still remains.The interior retains much of its original features and fabric. The house was owned by Frederick Wilson, civil servant, from late 1924 to 1937 and then by Violetta Fisher for 40 years until 1977. In May 1980, the property was subdivided into two parts and an additional house built at the rear. A bay window was built on the rear kitchen wall circa 1930s and a bay window in the north-eastern wall circa 1960s. Otherwise the house retains its original exterior appearance. Its significance has led to its inclusion, with three other Laurenson Settlement houses, on the heritage schedule of Hamilton City Council’s Proposed District Plan. Forest Lake was part of the earliest growth of Hamilton/Frankton outside the original militia settlement of Hamilton West; the Laurenson Settlement initiated further spread to the north.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 2
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
9903
Date Entered
6th June 2014
Date of Effect
6th June 2014
City/District Council
Hamilton City
Region
Waikato Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Lot 22 DP 7943, (RT SA51B/204) South Auckland Land District and the building known as House thereon and shown as Flat A on DPS 29034, South Auckland Land District. The building on the north-west half of the property described as Lot 22 DP 7943 (RT SA31D/215) and known as 2A Walsh Street is excluded. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the registration report for further information.)
Legal description
Pt Lot 22 DP 7943 (RT SA51B/204), South Auckland Land District
Location Description
On the corner of Forest Lake Road and and Walsh Street.
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 2
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
9903
Date Entered
6th June 2014
Date of Effect
6th June 2014
City/District Council
Hamilton City
Region
Waikato Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Lot 22 DP 7943, (RT SA51B/204) South Auckland Land District and the building known as House thereon and shown as Flat A on DPS 29034, South Auckland Land District. The building on the north-west half of the property described as Lot 22 DP 7943 (RT SA31D/215) and known as 2A Walsh Street is excluded. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the registration report for further information.)
Legal description
Pt Lot 22 DP 7943 (RT SA51B/204), South Auckland Land District
Location Description
On the corner of Forest Lake Road and and Walsh Street.
Cultural Significance
Social Significance or Value The occupants of the houses were part of a growing community in Forest Lake and the adjacent Maeroa area who worked together to establish services and facilities such as a primary school, church and bus services, and to get the area recognised as part of Hamilton Borough.
Historic Significance
Historical Significance or Value The houses built as part of the Laurenson Settlement in Forest Lake Road are significant for their associations with government development of worker housing during the 1910s. It is the earliest group of state housing in Hamilton and provides a rare example of state housing from that period. Taken in conjunction with other state housing in Hamilton the houses are significant in representing national trends in the development of workers’ housing in New Zealand from a range of periods. The Laurenson Settlement contributed to the spread of Hamilton and Frankton to the north, the development being one of the first in the Forest Lake area when the area was still part of rural Waipa County. It provided affordable housing for the growing population of Frankton, primarily for railway staff, factory workers and manual workers.
Physical Significance
Architectural Significance or Value The house is representative of state houses designed for low-income workers by the government architect Woburn Temple in the 1910s. The house is of a different plan to the house already registered (84 Forest Lake Road, Reg. 4346) and another house (102 Forest Lake Road) proposed for registration; the three together are a good representation of Woburn Temple’s designs. The house at 126 Forest Lake Road is a modest transitional villa. Transitional villas, built in the 1910s, were typically planned as villas but began to incorporate some elements of the bungalow style such as verandahs covered by an extension of the main roof supported on plain posts with simpler brackets instead of the elaborate decorative detail of late Victorian villas. Interior features include decorative moulded architraves and ceiling battens, glazed tile fireplace surrounds and decorative ceiling vents. The house retains significant features from the time of its construction and its front garden setting is consistent with its period of construction and reflects original architectural drawings.
Detail Of Assessed Criteria
(a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history This house has great historical significance as it was one of a group of state houses built under the Workers' Dwellings Act 1910, one of the early large-scale central government initiatives to provide affordable housing to low-income workers and their families. It was part of a wider package of social legislation passed by the Liberal Government (1893-1912). The house designs were allowed to be modified to allow for individual needs, within controlled limits. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history The house is part of the Laurenson Settlement which is associated through its name with George Laurenson, a Liberal Member of Parliament; and with egalitarian policies of providing affordable housing for all New Zealanders. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural complex or historical and cultural landscape The house is one of a group of state houses of recognisably similar designs that exist in a residential area that also includes later examples of state and private housing. Summary of Significance or Values The house at 126 Forest Lake Road, Hamilton, is one of the nine earliest state houses in Hamilton, a group known as the Laurenson Settlement and built by the government under the Workers’ Dwelllings Act 1910 to provide affordable houses for low-income workers.
Construction Professional
Biography
Architect Woburn Temple was the Department of Labour Staff Architect from 1907 until 1915/
Name
Temple, Woburn
Type
Architect
Biography
No biography is currently available for this construction professional
Name
Public Works Department
Type
Builder
Construction Details
Finish Year
1917
Start Year
1914
Type
Original Construction
Description
bay window in rear elevation
Period
1930s
Type
Addition
Description
sewer drains connected
Start Year
1939
Type
Other
Description
bay window in north-east elevation
Period
1960s
Type
Addition
Description
interior walls lined with Gibraltar board, kitchen ceiling modified twice
Type
Modification
Description
wall between kitchen and living room removed; wall between kitchen and scullery/wash-house removed
Type
Modification
Description
concrete pad for coal range removed, new door in north-east end of lean-to and removal of original windows
Finish Year
2013
Start Year
2007
Type
Modification
Construction Materials
Rusticated weatherboard cladding, pale brick chimney and corrugated iron roof.
The house at 126 Forest Lake Road, Hamilton was constructed some time between July 1914 and 31 March 1917 as one of a group of state houses built under the Workers’ Dwellings Act 1910. The group of nine houses, all on the north-west side of Forest Lake Road, was named the Laurenson Settlement after Liberal Member of Pariliament George Laurenson. The Laurenson Settlement was the earliest state housing in Hamilton. Research to date has not established which was the first house built nor the order (by address) of construction. In 1905, the Liberal government (1890-1912) passed the Workers’ Dwellings Act; making it ‘the first central government in the Western world to build public housing for its citizens’. The Act paved the way for state housing but proscriptive conditions meant it was initially only partially successful. These conditions were mitigated in part by the Government Advances to Workers Act 1906 and by July 1908, 94 workers’ dwellings had been erected in Auckland, Petone, Christchurch, Dunedin and Coromandel. Under the subsequent Workers’ Dwellings Act 1910, the government enacted to build dwellings for landless urban workers for a ₤10 deposit. In 1910, architect Woburn Temple was reported as designing residences for those who had applied for and obtained loans under the Advances to Settlers scheme. While it was compulsory for applicants to accept one of the designs provided by the Department of Labour, modifications were allowed and Temple ensured there was no incongruity of design or materials. The designs, which had two to six rooms, followed ‘the usual style of smaller domestic architecture of New Zealand’. Plans for eight of the 15 designs are known to exist. Woburn Temple was the Department of Labour Staff Architect from March 1907 until 1915. Prior to that, he was described as a ‘government officer’ when inspecting the erection of workers’ dwellings at Ellerslie in July 1906. He was gazetted as an architect in October 1907. In 1908, he controversially experimented with day labour instead of contract labour, and constructed two state houses in concrete instead of wood - experiments designed to compare costs. Little is known of Temple’s other work or his personal life. He and wife Eva had at least two sons, born in 1908 and 1912. Woburn Temple’s death and burial records have not been located. The Laurenson Settlement is on Part Allotments 75 and 76 Pukete Parish, first surveyed in 1864 into 50-acre (20.23 hectare) allotments as grants to militiamen of the Fourth Regiment of the Waikato Militia. Allotments 75 and 76 were part of the 250 acres (101.25 hectares) allotted to Doctor John Carey, surgeon to the militia. He acquired an additional 150 acres (60.75 hectares) and called his farm ‘Forest Lake’ after its area of native bush and a small lake, Rotokaeo. His land extended along both sides of Forest Lake Road and the northern and eastern parts were adjacent to the original town of Hamilton West. Carey died in 1889 and the farm was then owned by his daughter Margaret Kelly. By 1912, the subject area was owned by Mary Walsh, wife of John William Walsh, farmer and flaxmiller of Te Rapa. By that time, the town of Frankton had been established to the west of Hamilton and Forest Lake was in Waipa County, just outside the boundaries of Frankton and Hamilton. The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) railway line ran along the west side of the Forest Lake property, then south through Frankton Junction. In 1908, the NIMT was open from Auckland to Wellington and with the eastern lines to Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty from Frankton Junction, the rail traffic was considerable. By 1911, Frankton’s population was over 1000 people and growing fast, with employment centred around the railway and associated trades and businesses. Forest Lake fitted the government’s criteria of providing housing for workers with lower incomes in areas adjacent to cheaper rural land. On 20 May 1912, the government announced the purchase of land at Forest Lake for the purposes of providing housing under the Workers’ Dwellings Act 1910, with ‘general satisfaction’ being expressed locally. This was a 3.6 hectare strip on the north-west side of Forest Lake Road belonging to Mary Walsh. The land was surveyed in June 1912 and divided into 36 lots plus one street (Lake Street) which lay between Lot 22 and Lot 23. The official land transfer post-dated the announcement of the purchase as the Walshes did not have certificate of title. Title was issued to Mary Walsh on 18 September 1913, for 9 acres 2 roods 23.3 perches (3.9 hectares) on plan DP 7943. Three weeks later, on 8 October 1913, title was transferred to His Majesty the King for the purposes of the Workers’ Dwellings Act for 9 acres 18.7 perches (3.69 hectares) being ‘Lots 1 to 11, 13 to 36 and Walsh Street’ on plan DP 7943 being portions of Allotments 75 and 76 Parish of Pukete. Walsh Street was Lot 12 and it was later named Moore Street. Lake Street was proclaimed a public road on 18 July 1914 and later named Walsh Street. The lots were numbered from one at the north-eastern end to 36 at the railway end, and with the removal of Lot 12 as a street, provided 35 sections for housing. The house at 126 Forest Lake Road is on Lot 22 on DP 7943, adjacent to Walsh Street. The group of workers’ dwellings at Forest Lake was termed the Laurenson Settlement in recognition of Liberal MP George Laurenson (1857-1913), a strong advocate for the Workers’ Dwellings Act during its passage through Parliament. He represented the Lyttelton electorate from 1899 until his death in 1913, and was Minister of Labour, Customs and Marine in the McKenzie Administration of 1912. He supported the Labour Party’s stance during the Auckland watersiders’ strike and in recognition of this, his funeral cortege included nearly 1000 members of the Waterside Workers’ Union. On 8 November 1913, it was reported that the Frankton Borough Council had agreed at its monthly meeting to supply electricity to the Laurenson Settlement ‘if the government would erect poles and mains for about 30 chains to the nearest house, on the condition that the cost would be refunded if the property came into the borough’. Also in 1913, another landowner subdivided a 29 hectare block bordering the south-eastern side of Forest Lake Road into 200 sections for residential development. On 3 February 1914, the Superintendent Workers’ Dwellings advertised in the Waikato Times for tenders to construct six dwellings. Each builder was to state how many of the six he could construct and the closing date for tenders was 21 February. The plans, specifications and conditions of contract were available for inspection at the office of the Inspector of Factories in Hamilton. The report by the Minister of Labour for the year ending 31 March 1914 states that 340 workers’ dwellings had been built or were under construction nationwide. The report also states that nine acres (3.6 hectares) had been bought at Frankton. Photographs in the report show houses in Christchurch, Wanganui and Greymouth in the same designs as those in the Laurenson Settlement. On 28 May 1914, the Labour Department announced that it had accepted tenders for the construction of nearly 60 workers’ dwellings under the scheme inaugurated by the then Minister of Labour, John A. Millar, several years previously, ‘under which a worker may, by paying a small deposit and subsequent regular instalments, obtain a house built from a selected design. A series being available, slight modifications are made to meet individual tastes and necessities’. As well as six contracts for Frankton Junction, there were others for Gisborne, Patea, Masterton and Tolaga Bay. The first load of timber for the Laurenson Settlement houses was delivered in mid June 1914, and within three weeks the framework and roof of ‘what promises to be a picturesque villa’ had been erected and timber for three other houses was on the ground ready. In the year to 31 March 1915, weekly or other payments contracted for in the Laurenson Settlement were ₤70/15/9, but only ₤64/4/7 was received, that is, ₤6/11/2 was in arrears. Of the 172 buildings built and disposed of nationwide during 1914-15, six were at Frankton Junction and none were in course of erection. All were built for applicant-purchasers. The average weekly amount payable by the purchaser of a four-roomed house with section was 12/10 (12 shillings and 10 pence), and for a five-roomed house and section 15/6. The 1915 report states that the area available for new dwellings at Frankton was 7¼ acres (2.9 hectares) – the reduction being the roads. In the 1916 departmental report on owners in arrears, someone (or more than one person) in Laurenson owed ₤19/10/ – this sum came under the category of ‘Dwellings transferred to new purchasers’ or ‘Efforts being made to find more suitable purchasers’. The houses were built to standard plans, with some modifications and are likely to have had similar materials and fittings. In 1916, similar houses being built in Wellington were described in some detail: ‘In all details the houses are well finished. Plaster and beaver-boards, with rimu fixtures, make a room look well … . Windows and doors are of latest design, and in the living rooms the fireplaces are of the hearth-grate type. Linen cupboards are fitted for the housewife, and there is every convenience desired in the kitchen, scullery, and bath-room, including copper, tubs, and other sundries …. In the five-roomed houses, the occupier may have either one large living room and four bedrooms, or living room, sitting room and three bedrooms. The same choice is given in the four-roomed houses, but with one less bedroom. On the front of each house there is a wide verandah or porch, while bay windows further relieve any severity of style…’. From the departmental reports, it seems that six houses were built in the Laurenson Settlement by March 1915, none in the April 1915 - March 1916 year (although three were in course of erection), and three in the April 1916- March 1917 year. None were under construction at 31 March 1917. The houses were built on Lots 1, 3, 4, 11, 13, 14, 22 and 23. At the end of March 1917, there were no payment arrears for the Laurenson houses. The Forest Lake Road lots were sold off or dispersed under Warrants or Deferred Payment Leases from November 1917 – none of the first 18 lots relate to the houses currently identified as Laurenson Settlement state houses. Research to date has not established the date of construction of 126 Forest Lake Road nor the name of the first occupier or owner. Fewer workers’ houses were erected nationwide in the 1916-17 year as building costs rose: the average cost for a four-room wooden dwelling from ₤360 to ₤460 and for a five-roomed one, ₤450 to ₤560. The Department of Labour inspected its houses throughout the country and found that most owners were taking pride in their homes, laying out gardens and planting trees and shrubs. By 31 March 1918, there were 647 workers’ dwellings (plus one built but destroyed by fire) in the country. The Housing Act 1919 replaced the Workers’ Dwellings Act and further houses were built. The main change was to raise the income threshold for applicants. The 1920 report of the Minister of Labour stated that for Hamilton, negotiations for 25 houses were in progress. Two more houses may have been built in Forest Lake Road under the provisions of the 1919 Act. Further subdivisions by the Walshes and other landowners provided more sections for housing and Forest Lake began to develop as a residential area. Frankton merged with Hamilton Borough in 1917, but this still did not include Forest Lake. By 1923, there were 150 school-age children in the locality and Forest Lake School opened in 1926. In October 1923, Forest Lake Road was described in a house for sale advertisement as ‘the coming residential portion of Frankton’. In August 1923, householders from Forest Lake and Maeroa (adjacent to the south and south-east) formed a ratepayers association. The Maeroa Settlers’ Association considered a proposal to raise a loan for road improvements, but decided it was time for the locality to merge with Hamilton Borough. A petition signed by over 100 residents was submitted to the Governor-General and in December 1923, the Hamilton Borough Council agreed to incorporate Maeroa and Forest Lake into the borough. However, this did not happen officially until 1925. As the population of the area rose, services such as sewerage, drainage, water supply and bus transport were provided. Loan proposals for the provision of sewerage and water system were discussed in August 1925. In 1929, the Anglican community built a church hall. The suburb was close to the railway station and workshops; the railway house factory and mill; the bacon factory and the Frankton butter factory. Most of the residents were working class. In 1919, occupiers of the Laurenson Settlement included six railways employees, an engineer, a motor mechanic, a bacon-curer, a butter factory worker and an ironmonger. In 1930, six of the twelve listed occupants between the railway line and Mitcham Avenue worked in railways occupations; however, these were not all Laurenson Settlement houses. On 28 January 1925, Frederick Wilson of Frankton Junction, civil servant, was issued with certificate of title for Lot 22 as from 12 November 1924, having previously been issued with Warrant 2625 on SA213/139. It is not known when Wilson occupied the house, but in the 1919 electoral roll Frederick Wilson, postal messenger, was registered as living in Marama Street, Frankton, and in the 1921 and 1922 directories as in King Street, Frankton. Title was transferred to Thomas Arthur Smith, timber worker of Frankton Junction, on 10 February 1937 and within a few weeks to Violetta Helen Fisher. She is shown as the owner on a 1938 survey map. At some time a bay window was added at the rear. In 1937, Mary Walsh subdivided the land on the northeast side of Walsh Avenue. The rear (north-east side) of these lots was the boundary between Waipa County and Hamilton Borough Council. More state housing was built on the southeast side of Forest Lake Road and also in Rimu, Hinau and Matai Streets after 1938. Private housing, in those side streets and further along Forest Lake Road, was interspersed amongst state houses as the government sold off the unused sections bought as part of the Laurenson Settlement. In 1939, new sewerage drains may have been connected to the property. In 1950, the Crown still owned nine of the Laurenson Settlement sections. Lots 6, 7, 8, 16, 25, 26, 30, 31, 34, and 36 were held under deferred payment licenses under the Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act 1924, and validated many years later. At some time, possibly during Violetta Fisher’s ownership, a bay window was installed in the north-eastern wall of the front bedroom. Fisher was still at 126 Forest Lake Road when a new title was issued in 1977; however, a court order under the Aged and Infirm Persons Protection Act was imposed later that year and title transferred to Alison Geraldine Barlow on 29 November 1977. In May 1980, the property was subdivided into two parts, with the house on part A, the corner section, but still described under one title. The house, marked ‘Flat A’, is shown as sub-rectangular with the north corner missing. The plan also shows a separate WC offset from the middle of the rear of the house. On 1 September 1981, the property came under a cross-lease (one-half share composite title). An additional house was built on the north-western end of the property in 1981; its address is 2A Walsh Street. Each house is subject to a 999-year lease arrangement with the owner of the other part of the land. At some time, the wall between the living room and wash-house/scullery was removed, as was the wall between the kitchen and the wash-house/scullery. The coal range was removed and a central island sink bench installed in its place. The kitchen ceiling was lowered. Jeanette Taylor owned the subject property from 1982 until 2005, when it was purchased by the current owner, Waylon Bowker and his partner. Bowker had been living in the house for approximately five years prior to that. He gained full title in 2010. Since his occupation of approximately 14 years, he has replaced the north-eastern wall of the kitchen in the lean-to, with new windows and door, but cladding the exterior with matching rusticated weatherboards. He has removed the concrete pad that supported the coal range and fitted matching floor boards. The house has been recognised as being of value by its inclusion in the Schedule of Heritage Items Appendix 2.3-II in the Hamilton City District Plan (Operative) and the Proposed District Plan. Other early state housing groups in Hamilton include the Frankton railway settlement (1923-29), Richmond (late 1930s) and Hayes Paddock (1939-45). The Laurenson Settlement was the earliest state housing in Hamilton.
The house is situated at the north-west corner of the junction of Forest Lake Road and Walsh Street, in a residential suburb that contains state houses and privately-owned houses of different periods (from the mid 1910s onwards), a school, parks and a few shops. The front elevation faces south-east with the rear elevation facing north-west. The original ¼-acre (1011.7 square metre) section has been subdivided and an additional house built to the rear; most other properties in this area of Forest Lake Road have also been subdivided and in-fill housing built. The house appears to be a mirror image of Design 7, with five rooms. On the plan, the house measures 30 feet 4 inches (9.24 metres) across the front, 25 feet 6 inches (7.77 metres) plus 10 feet 4 inches (3.14 metres) lean-to extension. On the plan, the kitchen and scullery are in the lean-to, accessed from a central hallway leading from the front door and giving access to two main rooms either side. The building is a small transitional villa with hipped roof, bull-nosed verandah across the front (south-east) elevation and very shallow eaves. A lean-to extends on the western half of the rear elevation. On the eastern elevation of the lean-to is a door opening onto a recently-built deck. A circa 1930s square bay window with casement and hinged sashes protrudes to the rear of the property (north-west) from the lean-to. Another bay window, possibly constructed in the 1960s, protrudes from the north-east elevation of the front bedroom. These two bay windows are not on the original plan. The hipped roof is of corrugated steel sheeting. The building is clad in rusticated weather-boards. The windows are double-hung sash windows and in the front elevation are two pairs of windows opening onto the verandah. The front door, which has an upper light of colourless glass and two wooden panels below, has narrow panels either side and windows above which are glazed in red and yellow glass. A chimney, possibly pale Huntly brick, extends through the roof on the west side. On the plan, this chimney served a double hearth set on the diagonal in the corners of the front and side rooms. This is in the same style as that at 78 Forest Lake Road. The exterior appears to be in its original materials and exhibits original features such as the brackets beneath the front eave (above the verandah), the front door, the balustrade and the detail and brackets around the verandah. A pergola has been built onto the front of the verandah – this does not seem to have damaged the original structure. Several trees in the grounds date from the earlier decades of the house’s occupation. They include cabbage trees, lemonwood and a rimu. A path leads from the corner of the property to the front door. The ceilings are rimu board and batten. The battens are moulded, apart from the boards adjacent to the walls, which are plain. The ceiling boards are approximately 250 millimetres wide, the battens approximately 100 millimetres wide. Vents in ceilings above the electric light cords are decorative circular panels set into a plain plank surround. The lowered ceiling in the lean-to is in two styles reflecting more than one alteration, and is now horizontal. The sloping tongue-and-groove original ceiling remains in situ concealed above the false ceiling. Stud height in the main rooms is three metres. The walls throughout have been lined in Gibraltar board, which was laid on top of the original kauri sarking. The doors are wooden, with three horizontal and two vertical panels. The floor boards are 140 millimetre wide rimu. The skirting boards in the main rooms and hall are 180 millimetres high with moulded profiles. The architraves around doors and windows are similar in style, door architraves being 150 millimetres wide. The fireplace in the living room has a wooden surround with mantel and shelf. These are in a plain style; however, the cast-iron surround has the same pattern as in the front room, and it has decorative glazed tiles. The floor tiles are black glazed. While the wooden surround is identical to that in 102 Forest Lake Road, it is ill-fitting (sitting proud of the wall) and not similar in style to the fireplace in the front room. The front fireplace has a more ornate wooden surround and mantel shelf, and patterned glazed tiles on the surround and white glazed tiles on the floor. The sitting room fire surround may not be original, but an attempt has been made to install one of the same period. A decorative arch feature in the hallway still exists. The bathroom has been enlarged by incorporating the recess from the front bedroom, effectively doubling its length. The bath has been removed and a shower box and toilet installed. The small window facing north-west pivots about pins set approximately one third up the sides. The main alteration to the interior has been the removal of two walls to form an L-shaped kitchen-living-dining area, and replacing the coal range with a central bench and sink unit. The house is in good condition and retains most of its original features and fabric.
Completion Date
5th May 2014
Report Written By
Lynette Williams
Information Sources
Gibbons, 1977
P.J. Gibbons, Astride the River: A History of Hamilton, Christchurch, 1977
Schrader, 2005
Ben Schrader, We call it home: a history of New Zealand state housing. Auckland: Reed, 2005
Williams, 2007
Lynette Williams, Laurenson Settlement Workers' Dwellings, Forest Lake Road, Hamilton (LN Library, 993.3 LAU).
Report Written By
A fully referenced registration report is available on request from the Lower Northern Area Office of Heritage New Zealand. Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.
Current Usages
Uses: Accommodation
Specific Usage: House