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 Bayreuth 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 Bayreuth was eventually built was subsequently part of a land parcel leased by the Trust administrators for 20 years to Auckland merchant John Roberton in 1861. In 1864, builder James Gilberd and painter Henry Gilberd took over the lease and built four dwellings. Two of these, a single-storey timber house fronting Wynyard Street and a two-storey cottage fronting Grafton Road, occupied the land at 10 Grafton Road. The increasing desirability of the area for high quality residential housing during the 1870s and early 1880s led to the construction of new villas elsewhere on the Auckland Grammar School Board's lots, such as four allotments fronting the east side of lower Symonds Street in 1884-5. However, the depression of the later 1880s and 1890s resulted in land at the corner of Symonds Street and Grafton Road lying vacant almost two decades. It was only with the advent of better economic times at the turn of the century that the land at 10 Grafton Road was subdivided, creating a 427m² site on which a new building was erected. The earlier structures were sold for removal in 1902. Construction of the building A 50-year lease for the site was granted to merchant William McCabe in February 1903. The terms required that a substantial dwelling costing not less than ₤600, be completed within two years. Within a few months, biscuit and confectionary manufacturer James Milne Mennie (1860-1924) had taken over the lease. The substantial two-storey residence appears to have been constructed as a rental property. Aberdeen-born Mennie had come from Melbourne to the Thames goldfields in 1869 where he founded the business Mennie and Dey. He relocated the business to Auckland in 1884. A successful entrepreneur, Mennie was also a noted philanthropist, who made numerous large public donations during his lifetime and in his will. These included a ₤4000 bequest to the Auckland University College, the income arising from which was to be used towards providing University education in commercial subjects. Tenders for construction of a house closed on 23 December 1903. The design was that of a noted Auckland architect, Charles Le Neve Arnold (1855?-1955), who was involved in the development of the Arts and Crafts movement in New Zealand. The builder was Ebenezer Morris (1849?-1929), a Scotsman who had come to New Zealand in 1877. One of Morris' larger projects, with a business partner, was St Paul's Anglican Church in Auckland's Symonds Street (1894-1895). Largely Italianate in design, the new two-storey brick building at 10 Grafton Road also incorporated emerging Arts and Crafts features, such as a roof clad with Marseilles tiles. In this respect it reflected a transition between two popular styles for the grand dwellings of the wealthier citizens of Auckland. Built close to the Grafton Road pavement and immediately next to Wynyard Street, the imposing house on its corner site was a notable landmark for those travelling up Grafton Road to the city. Both floors had four sizeable rooms at the front. A small room off the rear hall on the ground floor suggests there may have been accommodation for a maid. Highly ornate cast-iron railings with matching gate extended along the front boundary with a short return along the Wynyard Street boundary to enclose the front garden and formal entrance to the residence. Similar cast-iron crestings adorned the front balcony at first floor level. The first tenant Dr J.E.W. Somerville, took over the house in August 1904. By November 1906 Amsterdam-born music teacher Johannes Wielaert (1875-1948) had leased the conveniently located residence a few doors from nearby Choral Hall. Wielaert had settled in Australia in 1899. He was conductor of the newly founded Auckland Orchestral Society from 1905 until 1913 and prepared the Festival Orchestra that accompanied Sir Henry Coward's Sheffield Musical Union on the New Zealand leg of its world tour of 1911. Prior to the advent of the National Orchestra in 1946, local orchestras were a significant influence in New Zealand's cultural development. Wielaert's wife was New Zealand soprano Kathleen Schafe. During their tenancy which ended in 1913, the house was known as Bayreuth. Subsequent use and development 'Outfitter' James Gray briefly rented the property until 1917, when Mrs Elizabeth Mugglesworth became the occupant subsequently purchasing the lease in 1924. During her 35-year tenancy the house was converted into two apartments, probably in the early 1930s. In 1952 the Presbyterian Church Property Trustees took over the lease. By this time the premises, like many other houses in the lower Symonds Street area, were doctors' rooms. The church bought the freehold in 1953 and established its Presbyterian Overseas Mission office on the first floor, but continued to let the ground floor out as rooms for medical practitioners. The Crown acquired the property in 1962. The University of Auckland 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. The building at 10 Grafton Road was occupied by the Department of Germanic Languages until 2001, when the School of Music became its tenant. Currently a site office for the construction of an adjacent Business School, the building will be restored at the end of the project and its gardens reinstated. The building is one of a dwindling group of residences on the lower Symonds Street ridge that demonstrates the area's development as a high-status residential district in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Bayreuth lies in the eastern part of Auckland's central business district (CBD). It is located on the eastern slopes of the Symonds Street ridge, in an area currently occupied as a campus by the University of Auckland. Situated a short distance to the southeast of the main thoroughfare of Symonds Street, the building occupies a corner site on the eastern side of Grafton Road at its intersection with Wynyard Street (now a stopped road). Grafton Road is a broad street linking the Symonds Street ridge with Grafton Gully, and 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, Bayreuth 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) and three late-Victorian villas at 12 to 16 Symonds Street. A surviving early twentieth-century house is situated immediately to the north of Bayreuth. Diagonally opposite, on the western side of Grafton Road, is a former shop of nineteenth-century date. 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). Bayreuth is built at a slight angle to Grafton Road. It occupies most of a wedge-shaped, 427m² site. This is adjacent to a large University Business School development currently under construction. The site has a cross fall from west to east and from north to south. A small front garden incorporates a series of small, level spaces defined by an ornamental cast-iron fence and gate. The two-storey villa is constructed of brick and has a plaster finish. It is broadly rectangular in plan although the south side of its façade to Grafton Road projects forward under a separate gable. The building has been described as simplified Italianate in style, although it contains Arts and Crafts elements such as a Marseilles tile roof. It has been noted for its strong contribution to the Grafton Road streetscape. Heavy plain pilasters define the ground-floor bay window and the entrance porch. At first floor level is a balcony with cast iron cresting. The windows on the first floor gable end walls have circular heads and there is an oculus high in each gable. The Marseilles-tiled roof has a deep overhang with exposed purlins. Two chimneys with pronounced cornices and a recessed frieze with Egyptian key pattern are a notable feature as seen from Grafton Road. The northwest elevation has a square bay, which at ground floor level extends to the north corner of the building taking in a plain, side entrance. The separation between the two floors is expressed on the bay's exterior by a heavy cornice. The north corner on the building's upper level is recessed and is decorated with three squat, lathed baluster-like columns. The formal entrance porch with marble step and tessellated floor opens into a broad central hall that extends most of the length of the structure. The hall stairway has three ornate newel posts which are rectangular in section and taper towards the base. The post in the main entrance hall is more elaborate than those on the landing and first floor. The dark timber balustrade up the stair is ornate. The arch-supports in the hall on both floors are very distinctive and have a simple stylised decoration. A narrower passage with tongue-and-groove lining extends from the end of the hall, northwest to the back door on the ground floor. The ground floor has two generously-sized offices off either side of the main hall. A tiled fire register is a notable feature of the southwest room. The corresponding fireplace on the reverse chimney breast in the room behind is blocked off. A sizeable office occupies the building's southeast corner. Off the narrower hall are a toilet, a bathroom and a shower-room. On the upper floor the two rooms on the northwest side have been combined and a hallway formed to access two rooms at the rear. The room in the southeast corner was originally a sizeable open balcony. On the southeast side are three offices - two recently formed by partitioning the front room. All but one of the building's fireplaces has been removed, but original ceilings, ceiling roses and other joinery survive largely intact.