Before the arrival of Maori from the north in the 1820s, the Wellington area was populated primarily by people of Kurahaupo waka descent, including Ngai Tara, Rangitane, Muaupoko, Ngati Apa and Ngati Ira. These people have been referred to as ‘Whatonga-descent peoples’ since all claimed descent from Whatonga, an early Maori explorer who named the harbour Te Whanganui a Tara, for his son Tara.
At the arrival of the New Zealand Company ships from 1839, Pipitea Pa was a thriving community and one of the most populated pa in the region. It was named Pipitea after the plentiful food of the pipi from the harbour and was home to the Te Atiawa people.
The New Zealand Company bought land in the Wellington Harbour area in 1839 in preparation for emigration from England, and the area was colonised with the European settlement growing steadily and attracting many immigrants. Over subsequent generations Te Atiawa people moved away from the area back to Taranaki and to other locations, while some stayed to maintain a presence after European settlement.
Part of the 1839 purchase included sections in the area now known as Thorndon, named after the English home of the New Zealand Company Director Lord Petre. Thorndon became home to many of the first European settlers and like many colonial towns it housed a mixture of workers, merchants, administrators and the wealthy elite.
Thorndon’s role as the centre of governance was established early on with the designation of the Government Reserve in 1840 and the construction of the residence of Colonel Wakefield. When Wellington’s provincial council building, situated on the government reserve, became the new Parliament in 1865 Thorndon firmly established itself as the centre of power and influence.
The Ministerial Residence at 41 Pipitea Street was originally constructed as a house for Robert Westley Bothamley (1888-1967), a solicitor of Porirua, in 1927. Bothamley had acquired the property in that year from John Walters, a settler of Wellington, but it is unknown whether Bothamley ever lived in the house. Bothamley had married Doris Evelyn Gear in 1916 and they lived at the Gear Homestead in Porirua (NZHPT Registration no. 1328, Category 2) After Doris passed away Robert continued to live at the homestead until his death in 1967.
An application for a building permit for the construction of a dwelling at 41 Pipitea Street was received by the Wellington City Council on 8 June 1927. The architect was Stanley W. Fearn (1887-1976) and the builder J. Clark. Fearn was an established Wellington architect, a chair of the Wellington branch of the Institute of Architects and winner of the inaugural New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal for the William Booth Memorial Training College on Aro Street (1913) in 1927. Fearn was a contemporary of other well-known Wellington architects including William Gray Young and Austin Quick; all three were in partnership at one time. A house designed by William Grey Young in the English Domestic Revival style is located at 31-35 Pipitea Street (NZHPT Register no. 2912, Category 2).
41 Pipitea Street has elements of the English Cottage Revival and Neo-Georgian styles which were favoured by Fearn and his contemporaries. The style reflected the notion of the Englishman’s home as his castle; a display of wealth and status and ‘colonial links to the homeland’. This style was to be contrasted with the bungalow design that had American influences and was becoming more dominant in domestic architecture. Neo-Georgian (sometimes called William and Mary) is characterised by symmetrical designs with the use of pediments and porticos. These elements are displayed in the house at Pipitea Street which represents an intact and unmodified example of Fearn's personal interpretation of the English neo-Georgian theme in domestic architecture. His design would be executed on a much larger and grander scale for the Rototawai Homestead in the Wairarapa which was constructed in 1929 (NZHPT Register no.3954, Category 1).
The property was transferred to Dorothy Paterson, wife of merchant Stronach Paterson (1886-1957), in 1928. Stronach Paterson was a director of A.S. Paterson & Co. and held other notable positions, including the government representative on the London Agency of the Dairy Producers’ Board. He retired from his directorship of A.S. Paterson & Co. in 1940. The property at 41 Pipitea Street was bought by the Crown for £8,000 in 1943. The building was acquired for use as an office for the National Provident Fund and the Friendly Societies Department.
Prime Minister’s Residence
The Prime Minister’s House, also known as Premier House, at 260 Tinakori Road, Thorndon, was built in 1875, and the first politician to live in the new building was Sir Julius Vogel. ‘Between 1901 and 1928, Joseph Ward, William Massey and Gordon Coates made it the social heart of political Wellington. Ward called it ‘Awarua House’ and Massey and Coates ‘Ariki Toa’.’ However, when Michael Joseph Savage came to power in 1935 he considered the house too ostentatious for him to live in and for the next 40 years prime ministers lived in ministerial houses. The house was only reinstated as the prime minister’s residence in 1989.
The first prime minister to live at 41 Pipitea Street was Sidney George Holland (1893 - 1961) who was leader of the National Party when it won the election in 1949. Holland announced that he intended to make 41 Pipitea Street his official residence but added that ‘someday I hope an official residence with suitable grounds and with suitable accommodation to extend hospitality to visitors might become available.’
Holland served as prime minister from December 1949 until September 1957, when he stepped down due to ill health prior to the election in November 1957. Keith Holyoake (1904 – 1983) took up the National Party leadership and was prime minister until the election when Labour gained victory and Walter Nash (1882 – 1968) led the country from December 1957 to December 1960. Nash lived at Pipitea Street for a period during his time as prime minister but his main residence was at 14 St Albans Grove, Lower Hutt (Nash House, NZHPT Register no. 7742, Category 1).
However, the residence is most significant as the home of Keith and Norma Holyoake, during Holyoake’s term as prime minister from December 1960 to February 1972. Holyoake would become New Zealand’s third longest-serving Prime Minister. Holyoake was known for his modest living arrangements; he rejected the trappings of office and life at Pipitea Street was comfortable but not lavish. As quoted in a NZ Truth article: ‘Like other New Zealanders he is uncomfortable in the presence of servants; and Mrs Holyoake does the domestic duties at 41 Pipitea Street.’ Holyoake’s ‘Kiwi Keithness’ was best displayed when he was photographed with a young mover helping shift furniture into the ministerial residence in February 1961.
Holyoake was always available and accessible to the public and this was reflected in his address and phone being listed. He received many calls at the residence and members of his family remember him defending these interruptions as a necessity of public life. Holyoake’s accessibility as a politician and a prime minister was met with respect and his physical presence walking to Parliament, visiting the local shops and out on the streets of Wellington was fondly remembered by the public.
Holyoake was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of June 1970 and was made a Knight of the Grand Cross of St Michael and St George. He had declined a knighthood five years prior but accepted this one because it was from the Queen and he couldn’t ‘tell a nice little woman like that to go and get stuffed.’ The press conference was held at Pipitea Street and Holyoake was the first New Zealand prime minister to be knighted while still in office. Holyoake was later, with some controversy, appointed governor-general and his wife Norma was honoured for her services to public service in 1980. Their standing was further enhanced when they became companions of the Queen’s Service Order.
Questions about the suitability of the house as a prime minister’s residence were raised a number of times, including in an article in NZ Truth in 1967. The article noted that while Holyoake was a modest man and would not list a prime minister’s residence at the top of his priority list, the New Zealand public should insist on ‘housing the Prime Minister in a residence that adds to rather than detracts from the dignity and status of the office.’
The construction of departmental office buildings as part of the Government Centre plan earmarked 35 Pipitea Street and 41 Pipitea Street for future demolition and development. Hence, the buildings were not maintained to a high level during the 1970s. Motorway construction in Wellington had already seen a number of ministerial residences demolished, including the former residence of Prime Minister William Fergusson Massey at 12a Parliament Street, Thorndon. 41 Pipitea Street was known for its dilapidated state and it was said that the Holyoakes put buckets under the leaks in the kitchen roof whenever it rained. With the defeat of the National Party in the 1972 election, Keith and Norma had to move out of the residence at Pipitea Street and they purchased a house in Aurora Street, Wellington.
The Ministry of Works development plans for Pipitea Street never eventuated and the house continued to be a residence for ministers. Home to a number of ministers over the years it became a site of protest during the Bastion Point (Takaparawhā) occupation when Eruera Nia protested outside the address when it was the residence of Venn Young, the then Minister of Lands.
For many years ministers have been provided with a ministerial residence by the Crown. However, with changing policy about the housing of ministers and allowances for accommodation the need for the Crown to own ministerial residences has declined. The house at Pipitea Street ceased to be a ministerial residence in May 2012 and the house that boasts a politically famous address as the ‘unofficial’ prime minister’s residence will cease to be publically owned.
