Early history of the site Prior to European settlement, there was Maori occupation on today's Symonds Street ridge and Queen Street gully, known as Horotiu. The ridge may have been particularly well-regarded for its fertile soils and was cultivated by Ngati Whatua in the 1830s, when food was grown to supply the increasing number of Pakeha visiting the Waitemata harbour. After Auckland was chosen as the site of the colonial capital in 1840, the ridge was laid out as the epicentre of administrative power in the new colony, incorporating the British governor's house, the Albert Barracks - the largest military installation in the country - and the general assembly, where delegates from throughout the country gathered to discuss political matters. Following the departure of the colonial administration to the newly designated capital at Wellington in 1865 and the withdrawal of British troops shortly afterwards, the ridge consolidated its reputation as a high-status neighbourhood in the 1870s with the construction of desirable housing for the wealthy and places of genteel recreation such as Choral Hall and Albert Park. The site occupied by the current building at 14 Symonds Street was part of a larger area of land on the southeastern side of Symonds Street that was initially an endowment reserved by Governor George Grey under the Grammar School Trust Deed of 1850. A Grammar School for the intended instruction of 'persons of all classes and races' who inhabited the colony was an early attempt to encourage local education, but was not finally established until 1869. The site on which the house at 14 Symonds Street was eventually built was subsequently part of a land parcel leased by the Trust administrators for 20 years to settler Charles Pike in 1859, but also took in some land from an adjoining plot to the southwest. A two-storey timber dwelling was built on the northeastern side of the current allotment by 1865. A stable erected in the northwestern corner of the current site by 1866 was demolished prior to 1882. The timber house was removed or demolished in 1884, following the lapse of the lease. New subdivisions were created by the Auckland College and Grammar School Trust, including the 612m² site on which a new house was constructed. Construction of the building The terms of the leases offered for the new subdivisions required that any dwelling erected should cost not less than ₤500. This reflects the increasing desirability of the area in the 1870s and early 1880s, particularly for individuals with commercial backgrounds who prospered during the economic boom of that period. Fifty-year leases for adjoining properties at 14 and 16 Symonds Street were granted to wine and spirits merchant, Edward Lewis (1835?-1909) in March 1884. The leases were held for the benefit of his wife Julia (1830?-1912), who transferred half of her interest to a trust for her children by her first husband Charles Davis (1814?-1875). Davis had been a merchant and auctioneer by trade, who had arrived in Auckland in circa 1843 and was one of three men who served the Auckland Hebrew congregation until a rabbi could be engaged in the early 1850s. Davis, merchant David Nathan and another were instrumental in obtaining a site for a synagogue. Ties with the prominent Nathan family were strengthened when one of the Davis' three daughters married Nathan's son Laurence David (1846-1905) and another married Nathan's nephew Alfred Hyam Nathan (1856-1905). The firm of L. D. Nathan established in 1868, grew out of David Nathan's general merchandising business which had been established at Kororareka in 1840 and relocated to Auckland in 1841. Later operating large kauri gum store, bond store and tea warehouse premises on the corner of Auckland's Commerce Street and Customs Street East, L. D. Nathan was one of few major Auckland businesses to survive the economic depression of the later 1880s and 1890s. Although more recently established than the business of L.D. Nathan, the firm of A.H. Nathan - importers, wholesalers and shipping agents - also enjoyed extensive trade throughout the province. The Nathans and other prominent members of the Jewish community lived in the immediate vicinity of lower Symonds Street during the late nineteenth century. Plans for identical houses at 14 and 16 Symonds Street were drawn up by the noted Auckland architectural firm of Edward Mahoney & Sons in March 1884. Edward Mahoney had recently become president of the Auckland Institute of Architects and was known for his design of one of the grandest merchant dwellings in the Auckland area, at the Pah in Hillsborough in 1877. The design for the buildings was approved by the Auckland College and Grammar School Trust Board three months later and tenders were called at the beginning of June for the erection, 'in brick or concrete', of two residences. Ten tenders were received. That of Baildon and Stevenson was accepted. Erected 'out of Julia Lewis' own separate estate and money', the urban-style villas were completed by January 1885. Their Italianate design was fashionable in the 1870s and 1880s, particularly among merchants, whose commercial premises were often built in a similar style. Built of brick with slate roofs and of asymmetrical appearance, the houses had kitchen and service rooms in the basement, living and dining rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms on the first floor. They also probably incorporated plumbed-in bathrooms. Much taller and more spacious than the houses they replaced, the residences were designed to portray the wealth of their occupants. Built close to the street, the residence at 14 Symonds Street had a small formal front garden and a significantly larger garden area to the rear, which may have included a two-storey timber structure and two smaller outbuildings from an early stage. A multi-storey rear verandah on the main building overlooked this area and afforded more distant views across Grafton Gully to the Auckland Domain. Evidently built as a rental property, 14 Symonds Street was let to Auckland Grammar School Headmaster Charles Bourne (1850-1913) by March 1885. This occurred just before the urban property market collapsed as Auckland entered into a lengthy period of economic depression. As headmaster of Auckland Grammar (1881-1893) and Christ's College, Christchurch (1893-1903), Bourne was a significant figure in the ongoing development of two prestigious New Zealand secondary schools. During his tenure at Auckland Grammar he developed an efficient organisation, established a school uniform, amalgamated the boys' and girls' schools and markedly improved the institution's academic standing. Bourne had relocated to a residence in Manukau Road by 1889. For a short time (perhaps only months) 14 Symonds Street probably became the residence of former Premier and Attorney-General Sir Frederick Whitaker (1812-1891), until his death in December 1891. Although his law partnership formed with Thomas Russell in 1861 was reputed to have been among the most lucrative in the colony, Whitaker's entrepreneurial activities brought him close to financial ruin in the 1880s perhaps explaining why he rented. Tenants in the 1890s included an insurance manager and a commission agent. By January 1900 the residence, in common with a number of substantial homes located in the Symonds Street area, had become a boarding house providing accommodation for single working people and a transient population. This occurred as wealthier citizens increasingly moved to suburban locations. Land values in this part of the colonial town nevertheless remained significantly higher than elsewhere in the city centre. Subsequent use and development The children of Julia Lewis had sold the lease of the property by 1913. Later known by the name Okareta, the building was listed in 1923 as 'apartments', a use that continued at least for the next 43 years. The property contained 17 flats by 1945-1946, reflecting increased pressure for residential accommodation as marriage and birth rates escalated following the end of the Second World War (1939-1945). Having regained control of the site in 1949, the Crown sold 14 Symonds Street to Henderson farmer Roy Hosking in 1951 who constructed a two-room addition to the front of the house. The property was reacquired by the Crown in 1967 and by 1969 was being used, in conjunction with number 12 Symonds Street, by the University of Auckland's Town Planning Department. The University had been asked in 1956 to accept Princes Street as a 'permanent home'. The proposal had drawn strong objections, including those of several medical specialists who by now practised from the area in large numbers. Formally opened in May 1883, the Auckland University College initially occupied the disused District Court House in Eden Street. By 1965 the University was operating from over 80 buildings in the Princes Street and Symonds Street area, 45 of which were old residences or private hotels. Land to the rear of the plot was significantly altered with the construction of the current Arts Building in 1981, by which time the rear garden and earlier outbuildings had been removed. Refurbishment was carried out to the house at a similar time. The 1951 addition was removed, its front wall made good and its front verandah reinstated. A two-storey verandah was constructed at the rear of the building replacing one that was three storeys high. The building's chimneys were removed and fire-stop doors and lobbies were installed. The house, in association with those at 12 and 16 Symonds Street, became the home of the Political Studies Department, its current use. A walkway was subsequently constructed close to the rear wall of the building. The former house at 14 Symonds Street is currently one of a dwindling number of surviving colonial residences on the Symonds Street ridge. As one of a group of three adjoining houses of contemporary construction and design, it reflects prevailing attitudes to urban design in what was a well-to-do part of the colonial town.

The former house is one of a remnant group of three substantial, late-Victorian properties located on the southeast side of lower Symonds Street. Situated in the heart of the University of Auckland campus on the eastern side of Auckland's central business district (CBD), the properties are situated on the crest of the Symonds Street ridge. This section of Symonds Street, a major thoroughfare, is lined with numerous 100-year-old London Plane trees. These are identified in Appendix 2: Schedule of Trees, in Auckland City Council's District Plan. Located within the eastern part of the historic colonial centre of Auckland, 14 Symonds Street lies within a broader landscape of outstanding historical and cultural heritage value. In the same block are St Andrew's Church (NZHPT Registration # 20, Category I historic place) which is the oldest surviving stone church in New Zealand, a house at 5 Alten Road (NZHPT Registration # 7398, Category II historic place), two other late-Victorian villas in Symonds Street, noted above, and two buildings of early twentieth-century date in Grafton Road. One of the two latter buildings, the plastered brick villa Bayreuth at 10 Grafton Rd, was for a time the home of influential music teachers Johannes Wielaert and wife Katherine Schafe. In the block to the north and east are the colonial governor's residence (Government House (Former), NZHPT Registration # 105, Category I historic place), remnants of the largest military barracks in New Zealand (including the Albert Barracks Wall, NZHPT Registration # 12, Category I historic place), the Old Choral Hall (NZHPT Registration # 4474, Category I historic place), which was one of the major venues for cultural gatherings in colonial Auckland, and the Old Arts Building, University of Auckland (NZHPT Registration # 25, Category I historic place). Numerous other places of considerable significance are located in nearby Waterloo Quadrant and Princes Street, including the former Supreme Court (now the High Court, NZHPT Registration # 17, Category I historic place), a former synagogue (NZHPT Registration # 578, Category I historic place) and several large residences collectively known as former Merchants' Houses. Number 14 Symonds Street is the middle member of three similar urban properties of late nineteenth-century date, all of which are now encompassed within the Arts and Commerce precinct of the university campus. The property consists of a rectangular 612m² site incorporating a large building of residential design, a small front garden and an extensive open paved area to the rear containing a raised walkway. The walkway extends along the southeastern boundary at a right angle to the rear of the building. In the southeastern side yard is a free-standing canopy to shelter pedestrians. A similar canopy is located parallel to the rear of the building. A large Arts Building and its footprint lie within the eastern part of the property but are excluded from the registration. The ground slopes down considerably from the northwest to the southeast of the site so that the main building is two stories in height at its Symonds Street façade and three storeys high to the southeast. Set marginally further back from the front boundary than its neighbour to the northeast, the house has a shallow, front garden. A metal fence on a low concrete plinth stands on the front boundary to Symonds Street. The fence incorporates a garden gate. The two-storey villa is of Italianate style and L-shaped in plan, with a projecting front bay. Identical in appearance to its neighbour at 16 Symonds Street to the southwest, the house is constructed of brick with an external plaster finish. On its front facade, the building has a full-height, canted bay with an entablature between its two storeys. The bay is also expressed in the roof form of the building. A front door is sheltered by a single-storey timber verandah which runs along the rest of the frontage. The verandah is supported by paired square posts and has a decorative frieze. The window surrounds on the upper storey of the façade have segmental heads, contrasting with the round-headed windows of the ground floor bay. The sides of the window openings are trimmed with an acanthus-leaf motif at the springing point. The side walls of the building are plain. On the northeastern wall a rectangular segmental-headed window lights the basement, while a single rectangular window is located on each of the ground and first floors. The southeastern wall has two rectangular windows at basement level, and a rectangular window on each of the ground and first floors. A short two-storey timber verandah extends across part the building's rear wall at basement and ground floor levels. The building's roof incorporates a series of hips and is clad with corrugated iron. The roof eaves have decorative brackets. Internally, the central hallway on the ground floor has a large room off its northeast side and two rooms off the southwest side. The hall walls are of masonry construction. The large northeastern space is a staff common room and has French doors opening onto a rear verandah. The front room off the southwest side accommodates the departmental office and reception. Both front rooms at this level and the main front room upstairs have fireplaces and surrounds. A steep, narrow staircase at the rear of the building connects the ground floor with the basement, where there are offices and room for storage. The main entrance hall on the ground floor has a pair of ornate scrolled arch supports. On the rear wall of the landing above is a window with stained glass borders. The first floor has been partitioned to provide four offices. Fire-proof lobbies and smoke doors have been installed throughout.