Cultural Significance

Social Significance The Wilton Farmhouse has social significance for its association with members of the Wilton family, who were early Pakeha farmers in the Kaiwharawhara valley. The Wilton family constructed and resided in the farmhouse from the early 1860s through to 1915. The connection of the farmhouse to the Wilton family has continued through several owners of the Curtis (and Waugh) family. By 1878 the Wilton family owned and farmed a considerable portion of the valley from what is now the Karori cemetery to Wadestown. The Wilton family contributed to the creation of one of the largest reserves of native bush in New Zealand, Otari-Wilton's Bush, through the unusual practice for the time of preserving 17 acres of native bush on their farm. The farm also provided the foundation of the suburb appropriately named Wilton in 1949.

Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value Historical Significance The Wilton Farmhouse has historical significance for its association with the suburb of Wilton. Although the wider Wadestown area may have had a population of up to 200 working people in 1840s, by the 1860s sources indicate that there was a relatively low population in the area now known as Wilton. One source recorded that there were just five houses in the area. The Wilton family farm dates from the early 1860s. The farmhouse and outhouses of this early farm are still extant making them the most complete set of early colonial farm buildings in the Wellington city area. Over the past 140 years, the Wilton Farmhouse has witnessed the development of and in time bestowed its name to, what has changed from a rural farming area to a suburb of Wellington.

Physical Significance

Technological Significance The farmhouse reflects the simplicity, versatility and durability of early wooden framed and weather-board colonial architecture. The original 1861 two-bedroom cottage was enlarged in 1883, leaving the extant totara and rimu timber two-storey, six-bedroom house. The original cottage and outhouses were constructed using the common colonial technique of using the roughly hewn pit sawn timber cleared for the new farm. Of the farm the farmhouse, milk-shed/stables and washhouse/dairy/workshop remain. Small details of everyday farm life survive, for example the milking shed still retains a wooden plaque with the names of the cows and dates of milking in 1896. Also, the cobblestone yard of the milk-shed/stables constructed by the original Wilton family exists today.

Detail Of Assessed Criteria

(a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history: The farmhouse and outhouses represent surviving remnants of the early development of pastoralism in the Wellington region. In 1860 Job Wilton purchased land in the Kaiwharawhara valley, which he and his family expanded and developed into a successful (mixed) farm through the nineteenth century. (e)The community association with, or public esteem for, the place: As the home of Job and Ellen Wilton (nee Curtis), the farmhouse is of importance to the residents of the area as the family after whom the suburb of Wilton was named in 1949.The continued local esteem for the farmhouse is illustrated through the numerous newspaper articles published over the years on the Wilton family and the establishment of Wilton. Furthermore, the Wilton and wider Wadestown community has taken an active interest in preserving the character of the area formed by Otari-Wilton's Bush and the farmhouse. Students at the local Otari School are encouraged to visit the farmhouse to learn more about their local history, for example, and to explore the lifestyles of early settler families in the Wellington region, while the Otari-Wilton Environment and Heritage Protection Society actively promotes heritage values in the suburb, and in the past has organised working parties to clear rubbish off WCC land adjacent to the farmhouse. (i) The importance of the identifying historic places known to date from early periods of New Zealand settlement: The Wilton and Curtis families both arrived in New Zealand in the early 1840s. The Wilton family farm dates from the early 1860s. The farmhouse and outhouses of this early farm are still extant making them the most complete set of early colonial farm buildings in the Wellington city area.