The two-storey timber Italianate Edwardian Mansfield Court, situated on the corner of Horner and Mansfield Streets, has been a local landmark on a major Newtown thoroughfare since 1905. It has provided accommodation as a hotel, hostel and halfway house. Built by locally significant architect James Bennie, it has architectural, social and historical significance. Māori connection to Te Whanganui-a-Tara reaches back to the oral traditions of the Polynesian navigator, Kupe. There were numerous pā and kainga around the Wellington region and Te Aro Pā was one of the largest Māori settlements in the region when European colonisation began in 1840. William Mein Smith laid out what became Newtown as town acres in the New Zealand Company’s original plan. The sparse largely European settlement of Newtown gave way to more intensive suburban development beginning in the 1870s. In 1904, horse-drawn cars were replaced by electric trams making the suburb affordable and convenient to commuting workers. Newtown expanded and the Hotel was constructed the following year by builder WG Emeny. Trading as the Kensington Private Hotel it became a fixture of the neighbourhood as a ‘temperance hotel’ providing non-alcoholic drinks to its patrons. The Hotel has concrete foundations, a timber frame, rusticated weatherboard and a corrugated iron roof. It has a striking, symmetrical elevation with verandahs and balconies and an ornate three-storey portico with a hipped-roofed tower. Some original features of the building’s façade have since been removed. The mid- to late-twentieth century saw several changes to the building. In 1949 the hotel was renamed Graham’s Private Hotel after new owner Kenneth Graham. By 1952 it was known as Kensington House, operating as a hostel for staff employed by the Post and Telegraph department. In 1965 is opened as Walton House, a hostel run for at-risk former criminals by Bruce Stewart and the Wellington City Mission. In 1978 it returned to use as a private hotel called the Mansfield Court Hotel. In 1966, 1973 and 1978 modifications were undertaken which included a new kitchen, garage, sitting room, laundry and boiler room. Since 1997 Mansfield Court Hotel has been owned by the Housing Corporation of New Zealand, and occupied by Te Menenga Pai Charitable Trust, again operating as a halfway house, assisting people with a criminal or drug history to re-integrate into society.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 2
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
2907
Date Entered
3rd March 1982
Date of Effect
3rd March 1982
City/District Council
Wellington City
Region
Wellington Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Sec 1249 Town of Wellington (RT WND2/1240), Wellington Land District and the building known as Mansfield Court Hotel (Former) thereon.
Legal description
Sec 1249 Town of Wellington (RT WND2/1240), Wellington Land District