DESCRIPTION: Joe Dransfield (1827-1906) bought the land on which Dransfield House stands, part of Town Acre 91, from his brother Charles Edward Dransfield in 1858. He then bought part of Town Acre 93 in 1866, and all of Town Acre 92 in 1868 and thus held a large piece of land in Upper Willis Street. While the Wellington Almanac has Joe Dransfield living in Willis Street from 1863, the house is believed to have been built in the 1870s. Dransfield was born in Yorkshire and came to New Zealand in 1857. He settled in Wellington where he joined his brother Charles in his established general merchant's business. He became well known as a coal merchant, carrying out contracts for the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company, of which he became a director. His own business suffered financial difficulties and was sold to the United Importers Company in 1888. Dransfield was politically active in Wellington, representing the City on the Provincial Council (1963-1867 and 1869-1873). He was chairman of the Wellington Town Board which preceded the Wellington City Council and was the first elected Mayor of the Wellington Corporation (1870-1874 and 1878-1879), established in 1870 under a Parliamentary Act of 1867. During his time as mayor, Dransfield actively promoted the reclamation of the harbour. Financial embarrassment led to his resignation in 1879. Ownership of 335 Willis Street passed from Dransfield to the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited in 1886, and to the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company Limited in 1890. During their ownership it was leased and run as a boarding house by Edith Louisa Weston, a widow. In 1896 the property was sold to Rose Christine Focke, wife of Eberhard Focke. The old City Building Index Register states that E. Focke made unspecified additions to the house in 1896. In 1905 the property was purchased by Alfred Ernest Kernot, Justice of the Peace, merchant and Consul for Paraguay. He added stables and a coachhouse in that year. In 1923 Kernot sold the property to David Lloyd Clay, a medical practitioner, and following Clay's death in 1935 the property was transferred to the Public Trust and in 1938 to the Wellington City Council. A variety of tenants leased the property and the house was in poor condition when the Wellington Arts Centre Trust took up the lease about 1979. The Wellington Arts Centre occupied the building until 1989.