The suburb of Karori at the time of early European settlement was covered with forest. In the 1840s, the New Zealand Company classified the area as a country district, and subdivided 2500 acres into 25 100-acre sections. The land was gradually taken up, and by 1845 ten of the plots were sold and houses were built along with a chapel. In the early period up to the 1870s development and building was centred around the main road and sawmilling was a major activity, with many of the local buildings and houses in Wellington built with wood milled in Karori. The area continued to slowly grow and, although the population was under 100 (including Makara), its facilities included a school, butcher, merchant and stores, along with an asylum. From the 1870s onwards there was an increase in the subdivision of the original 100-acre parcels, but development continued to be slow as access to Wellington city was limited. However, this improved with the construction of 'The Deviation' (currently Chaytor Street) in 1891 and the clearing of Raroa Road in 1892. Karori became a borough in 1891, and by the turn of the twentieth century the suburb began take its modern shape, with electricity connected and the Karori Tunnel completed in 1900, while tram lines were laid to Karori Park in 1911. In 1925 sewage and water lines were fully completed, and the subdivision of land and residential and commercial developments has continued through to the present day.
The land on which Glendaruel sits was one of the earliest settled plots in Karori, and the earliest recorded owner of the section was Daniel Wright (1823-1856). Wright formally acquired the land, 20 acres of Section 39, through a crown grant in 1856. He died that same year and the earliest known reference to a building on the site is in his will, dated 1855:
...to my dear wife Henrietta Wright I give and bequeath all the use and occupation and rents receivable due or accruing or which may become due of accrue from... Section 39 Karori District... being 20 acres more or less and which is my own freehold property together with all the building and improvements thereon to her own use and benefit during her lifetime... and my said wife shall have an enjoy either to occupy and live thereon herself or to let and receive the rents herself...
The will suggests that there were buildings on the land. However, it is unclear whether Glendaruel was the one of those mentioned in this document.
While the will bequeathed the land to Wright's wife, the Commissioner of Lands ruled that the land was to be vested with John Brown Reading and Edward Standen, who were trustees of the estate. In 1873 this title was then transferred to Stephen Lancaster, who was one of Karori's largest landowners and an important early local politician. Renovations to the building in the 1990s uncovered part of a newspaper dated 7 November 1874, which suggests that the building was constructed around or prior to this date. Lancaster leased the land, and one of the tenants of the house during this time was the colonial architect, Pierre Finch Martineau Burrows (1842-1920).
Burrows was of Huguenot descent and born in Norwich, England in 1842. In 1865 he arrived in Auckland on the Victory, with his brother, marrying Sarah Turner in 1865. In 1874 he became a draughtsman in the Colonial Architects Office in the Public Works Department, based in Wellington. He was appointed Chief Draughtsman in 1875, and then replaced William Clayton, the Colonial Architect, who had previously designed the Government Buildings and Government House in 1877. However, Burrows did not receive Clayton's salary or official title. In 1878 he became 'Chief Draughtsman, Architect North Island' following restructuring in the Public Works Department. He moved to Glendaruel around this same period and remained there until 1883. In an advertisement for a Bethunes & Co land auction in 1878 there is a small sketch of Glendaruel, then a simple, two-room cottage, with Burrows' name underneath it. During his residence at Glendaruel, Burrows designed his best-known buildings including Wellington's Supreme Court building (1879). Burrows was also responsible for the Mount Cook barracks in Wellington, and the south wing extension of Wellington's Government Buildings (1897). The position of 'Chief Draughtsman' was retrenched in 1884, and he returned to Auckland where he worked privately, before working as a temporary draughtsman in Hunterville, working on the main trunk line. He retired in 1908 and died 21 April 1920.
In 1899 Lancaster died and his executors William Fry Newcombe and Thomas William Lewer obtained probate. They applied to bring section 39 and 40 under the Land Transfer Act in 1907. The land was subdivided in 1908, and sections were offered for sale. Glendaruel is featured on the auction poster for 'Lancaster Estate' of that year which has sidebar notice of 'A very desirable HOME containing 6 rooms, stables etc, erected on Section Nos. 440 and 441 having a total frontage of 126ft. 8in. to the Main Road'. In October 1910 lots 439-441 were sold to Henry Taylor Marshall, who on sold them to Charles Austin Briggs, Company Manager in May 1914. In February 1919 Angus Melville Polson acquired the land from the Briggs estate.
In May 1919, Charlotte Eliza Wood, purchased the land and property. Charlotte Wood was the daughter of Dr James MacGregor, a Scottish Minister, who had also been a Professor in the Free Church Theological College in Edinburgh. Following the death of two children to tuberculosis, the family emigrated, and arrived in New Zealand on the Jessie Reedman. The family lived in Oamaru, where MacGregor became First Minister of the Columba Church. Charlotte attended Otago University, where she graduated with an MA with Honours and became a secondary school teacher. In 1904 she met Robert Wood, whom she married in 1906. Robert Wood was born in Leith, Scotland in 1852. After working as a youth he became involved in the temperance movement. Whilst studying for his ordinance at the Free Church of Scotland, he agreed to do missionary work, and arrived in New Zealand in 1877. He spent time at the first Church in Dunedin and Masterton. He was a minister in Southland and North Canterbury, and also spent time in Island bay and Seatoun. On Robert Wood's retirement in 1919, the couple moved to Karori, where Robert Wood continued to be active in the local church and wider community. The Wood's home was named the house 'Glendaruel', after a town in Argyll, Scotland, with which Mrs Wood's family had had strong links in the past. The house has remained in the ownership of the Wood family since this time. There was further subdivision of the land around the house. In September of 1929 part of lot 439 was sold. In 1933 the land was divided into two lots. Lot 1 was sold in 1934 to E. A. Wing. Charlotte Wood kept Lot 2, and Glendaruel, until her death, when it was transferred to Katherine Wood.
Around this period the main modifications to the house were completed. In 1932, the rear wall was demolished and replaced with a washhouse, shed and porch, as well as a new bathroom and kitchen. Material from the demolished section was used in the construction of the additions. Other changes included changing the double chimney to a single chimney, the addition of a fireplace in the front bedroom and the installation of new drainage. Four years later a new garage was built on the property. In 1974, the house was re-piled and in 1975 the lean-to room was demolished.
In 1982 the historic significance of the house was recognised by both the Wellington City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Since then the house has been well maintained and, as can be seen in the historical photographs, the verandah/porch remains similar today to the way it was in 1919 and the 1878 auction advertisement sketch. Glendaruel retains unique features from the original colonial cottage, and has a significant historical association with the Wellington suburb of Karori, dating back to at least the 1870s. Katherine Wood continues to reside at Glendaruel to this day.
