Erected in Devonport in circa 1901-2, the house at 14 Glen Road is a well-presented return bay villa with a shallow-roofed turret that illustrates the diversity of the colonial bay villa form. The house was the childhood home of Maurice Bramley, an Australian graphic artist whose works include the Phantom Commando comics popular in the 1960s. Later owner-occupiers of three or more decades’ standing included writer and Distinguished Professor in Maori Studies, Dame Anne Salmond, and architect / author Jeremy Salmond – two individuals who have made a major contribution to the understanding of New Zealand’s cultural, historical and architectural heritage. The Devonport area has connections with several iwi and was an early centre of Maori settlement. The one-and-a-half-lot property formed part of a 1880s residential subdivision and was bought in 1899 by Harriet Pegler the wife of a saddle maker, as the site for her family home. The design of the early-Edwardian return bay villa reflected strong Classical Italianate influences but also incorporated an octagonal turreted bay. A drawing room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms and a small bathroom were arranged around a wide central hall. Changing hands in 1903, the house became the childhood home of Maurice Bramley (1898-1975) who lived at the address until 1919. Later a respected illustrator, Bramley’s works included a Second World War poster memorialised in a 1991 Australian postage stamp. The villa was purchased in 1974 by the Salmonds who conserved the building and undertook alterations and additions. This work helped inform Jeremy Salmond’s knowledge as a professional heritage architect, and he later wrote Old New Zealand Houses 1800-1940 (1986), the first in-depth study of the development of New Zealand domestic architecture. The home subsequently featured in Di Stewart’s, The New Zealand Bay Villa: Past and Present (1992); and in Villa: From Heritage to Contemporary (2009). The house at 14 Glen Road has aesthetic value for the visual appeal of its external design and generous garden setting; architectural significance for illustrating the diversity of the colonial bay villa form; and cultural and historical significance for its strong associations with the Salmonds and Maurice Bramley.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 2
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
4531
Date Entered
10th October 2012
Date of Effect
10th October 2012
City/District Council
Auckland Council
Region
Auckland Council
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Lot 117, Pt Lot 118 Allot 31 Sec 2 Parish of Takapuna (RT NA1060/192), North Auckland Land District and the buildings known as House, thereon. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the registration report for further information).
Legal description
Lot 117, Pt Lot 118 Allot 31 Sec 2 Parish of Takapuna (RT NA1060/192), North Auckland Land District
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 2
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
4531
Date Entered
10th October 2012
Date of Effect
10th October 2012
City/District Council
Auckland Council
Region
Auckland Council
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Lot 117, Pt Lot 118 Allot 31 Sec 2 Parish of Takapuna (RT NA1060/192), North Auckland Land District and the buildings known as House, thereon. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the registration report for further information).
Legal description
Lot 117, Pt Lot 118 Allot 31 Sec 2 Parish of Takapuna (RT NA1060/192), North Auckland Land District
Cultural Significance
Cultural Significance or Value The place has cultural significance for its strong association with Dame Anne Salmond, a writer and Distinguished Professor in Maori Studies at the University of Auckland whose published works (some in collaboration with Eruera and Amiria Stirling, noted elders of Ngati Porou and Te Whanau-a-Apanui respectively) have made a significant contribution to a developing awareness, understanding and appreciation of New Zealand history and culture. The residence is known to many of the wider public through images in Stewart’s The New Zealand Bay Villa: Past and Present (1992), and those of Patrick Reynolds in Villa: From Heritage to Contemporary (2009), publications that focus on the colonial bay villa form and its place in New Zealand’s cultural and social history. The place also has cultural value as the childhood home of Maurice Bramley, a noted New Zealand-born Australian commercial artist and illustrator whose graphics form part of Australasian popular culture and collectible media.
Historic Significance
Historical Significance or Value This place was one of only four houses on Glen Road when constructed in 1902 and it reflects the development of the Stanley Bay area and Devonport’s expansion as a popular nineteenth- and early twentieth-century seaside suburb of Auckland
Physical Significance
Aesthetic Significance or Value The house at 14 Glen Road has aesthetic value as a well-maintained suburban bay villa within a generous garden setting incorporating mature trees including notable pohutukawa and puriri. The aesthetic value of the place is enhanced by its location in a residential street that contains well-preserved timber houses of similar date. The residence has aesthetic value for the visual appeal of its overall external design incorporating an octagonal corner bay, a pair of elegant brick chimneys, and decorative timber joinery including front verandah posts with finely carved Corinthian capitals, and solid brackets terminating in decorative orbs. Architectural Significance or Value The place has architectural significance for incorporating a well-presented return bay villa with a shallow-roofed turret illustrating the diversity of the colonial bay villa form. The house has been considered to be of interest as: an example of the breadth of variety of villa houses in the former borough of Devonport - which is itself known for its well-preserved late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings; and as an example of the bay villa style illustrated in two books published on the subject in New Zealand.
Detail Of Assessed Criteria
(a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history The place reflects Devonport’s expansion as a genteel residential suburb in the early twentieth century. It demonstrates the construction and ownership of suburban family houses by aspiring socially mobile families in early twentieth-century New Zealand and the contribution made by women with financial resources of their own. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history The place has a strong association with author and Distinguished Professor in Maori Studies, Dame Anne Salmond; and with noted Auckland conservation architect and author Jeremy Salmond, individuals who have made a major contribution to the understanding of New Zealand’s cultural, historic and architectural heritage. Dame Anne Salmond’s works Two Worlds: First Meetings Between Maori and Europeans 1642-1772, (1991); and Between Worlds: Early Exchanges Between Maori and Europeans 1773-1815 (1996) represent a major contribution to the study and understanding of early New Zealand history and Maori - Pakeha interactions preceding 1815. The Glen Road home has links with Ngati Porou elder Eruera Stirling (1899-1983) who blessed the house when the Salmond family moved to the address in the 1970s and whose knowledge and that of his wife Amiria informed the content of Hui written 1971-2, the first of three significant anthropological texts worked on collaboratively with Dame Anne. Jeremy Salmond is a conservation architect of significance in the Auckland region and wider New Zealand who gained considerable practical knowledge and understanding of bay villa architecture through work on his Glen Road property, which led in turn to further study and the publication of an authoritative account on the historical development of the form of New Zealand houses between 1800 to 1940. The house at 14 Glen Road also has significance as the childhood home of Australian commercial artist and illustrator, Maurice Bramley (1898-1975) who lived there from 1903 until 1919. Notable works by Bramley include a Second World War-era poster memorialised in 1991 as a postage stamp; and graphic art for comics including The Phantom Commando, sought by collectors of mid twentieth-century Australasian popular culture. (g) The technical accomplishment or value, or design of the place The place has value as an early-Edwardian suburban return bay villa of timber construction incorporating an octagonal turreted bay, and strong Classical references in the detailing of the front verandah and façade. The design of the exterior contributes to an appreciation of the diversity of the bay villa form and is enhanced by the spacious garden setting. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural complex or historical and cultural landscape The place forms part of an important historical landscape in Devonport which incorporates a wide variety of surviving late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings and other cultural remains. It particularly forms part of a cultural heritage landscape within Devonport’s west peninsula area that takes in a number of other notable residential structures including houses at 115, 126 and 152A Calliope Road; 27 William Bond Street; 6 Summer Street; 27, 39 and 41 Stanley Point Road; and Category 2 historic places Claremont and the former Inglis House, located at 14-14A and 18-20 Huia Street respectively
Construction Professional
Biography
No biography is currently available for this construction professional
Name
Salmond, Jeremy
Type
Architect
Construction Details
Description
Privy
Finish Year
1902
Start Year
1901
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
[Washhouse and outbuilding]
Finish Year
1902
Start Year
1901
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Kitchen relocated into rear verandah; third bedroom converted to bathroom and toilet; original bathroom converted into a store
Period
Unknown
Type
Modification
Description
[Garage]
Start Year
1967
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Verandahs to north and rear elevations and associated installation of French doors
Start Year
1975
Type
Addition
Description
Hall door to dining room (original kitchen) removed; opening created between lounge and sitting room (original dining room and kitchen)
Start Year
1975
Type
Modification
Description
Demolition of washhouse and outbuilding
Start Year
1980
Type
Demolished - additional building on site
Description
Dining room; en suite bedroom in extended roof
Start Year
1980
Type
Addition
Description
Garage with loft; garden shed
Start Year
1994
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Demolition of 1967 garage
Start Year
2005
Type
Demolished - additional building on site
Description
House
Finish Year
1902
Start Year
1901
Type
Original Construction
Construction Materials
House: Timber frame, weatherboard cladding, corrugated metal roofing Privy: Timber frame, board and batten cladding, corrugated metal roofing Garage: Concrete slab, timber frame, weatherboard cladding, corrugated metal roof Garden Shed: Timber frame, weatherboard cladding, corrugated metal roof
Early history of the site The northern shores of the Waitemata Harbour are of significance to several iwi, having been explored and occupied since early human arrival in New Zealand. According to oral tradition, the Arawa canoe under Tama Te Kapua investigated the Waitemata. The Tainui canoe also landed at Te Hau Kapua (Torpedo Bay) in present-day Devonport before travelling to its eventual heartland in the Waikato. Recorded archaeological sites at Ngataringa Bay, Stanley Bay and the west Devonport foreshore include middens and oven stones. Following Ngapuhi incursions in the 1820s, much of the North Shore was depopulated, assisting its purchase by the British Crown after formal colonisation in 1840. A small Maori settlement at Te Hau Kapua remained inhabited until 1863. In the 1840s, a British naval station was established at the foot of Victoria Road. Crown land was subdivided into suburban farms in 1850 and went on sale in 1853. Although settlement intensified around nuclei in Church Street and subsequently Victoria Road, large-scale development emerged primarily during the economic boom of the 1870s and 1880s. With the establishment of good quality ferry services to and from Auckland, Devonport became a well-established residential suburb and a significant seaside resort in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The site on which the house at 14 Glen Road was constructed lay on the Stanley Bay peninsula, to the west of the main centre of colonial settlement in Devonport. Located to the north of Calliope Road, the site formed part of Allotment 31, one of two adjoining allotments for which Crown Grants were issued in 1854 to Thomas Outhwaite, Registrar of the Supreme Court. In 1882, sections were offered for sale in the Sunnyside estate. Three adjoining sites were bought in 1885 by miner Moses Moralee (c.1856-87) who died in Western Australia’s Kimberly goldfields shortly after. The three-lot holding was jointly purchased in August 1899 by sisters Harriet Pegler (c.1865-1939) and Eliza Laybourn (c.1863-1943), possibly financed by an inheritance from their late father Atkinson Tiplady (c.1827-1893) a Hillsborough farmer. Harriet was the wife of salesman and saddle maker Llewellyn James Pegler (c.1858-1926). The son of an Onehunga boot-maker, Pegler worked for many years for the Auckland firm J. Wiseman and Son wholesale saddlers and leather merchants, later going into business on his own account as a saddle manufacturer (circa 1913). A deeply religious man, Pegler was active in the temperance movement and in later life sat on the Police Court Bench as a Justice of the Peace. In 1899 there were few houses in the Stanley Bay area - other than those along Calliope Road, one of the main residential streets in Devonport collectively said to be occupied chiefly by the families of city men whose homes were entirely removed and differing in aspect from the scene of their labours across the harbour. In late 1899 the Council resolved to proceed with formation of Glen Road, conditional on Messrs Pegler and Laybourn contributing £10 towards the cost. Construction of house (circa 1901-2) In August 1901, Harriet and Eliza divided their joint holding into two prior to building adjoining family homes, each occupying one-and-a-half lots. Construction of the single-storey Pegler villa may have signified a change in the family’s social status. The 1902 electoral roll gives Llewellyn’s occupation as ‘accountant’, rather than ‘saddler’ as appears in street directory listings of 1903 and 1904. In 1901, Harriet extended her holding with the purchase of adjoining Lot 32 fronting Russell Street. Promotion of the Stanley Point / Sunnyside area was to make the locality a major centre of residential growth in Devonport Borough by 1903. Properties advertised as ‘nicely situated’ were five minutes’ walk from the ferry service at Stanley Bay wharf, and had access to electric tram services. In 1902, the Pegler and Laybourn homes were two of only four houses in Glen Road. The villa occupied by Harriet and Llewellyn Pegler and their two infant sons incorporated a corner turret, a Queen Anne-style element. Verandah columns incorporating Corinthian capitals reflected a popular late-Victorian taste for Classical Italianate detailing and conveyed the growing status and material achievement of a rising urban middle-class. Internally, dressed beaded boards of kauri timber were placed horizontally - fair face to the wall cavity - to form a draught-proof sarking. The Pegler house contained a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom and three bedrooms off a central hall. The third bedroom occupied a substantial rectangular lean-to at the rear of the house. The kitchen was linked by a porch to a side entrance. Across the yard was a washhouse with a copper; a separate building containing the water closet; and a larger outbuilding. The bay villa style is said to have reached the peak of its popularity between 1895 and 1910. Many structures were of ornate design, employing mass-produced joinery manufactured in local mills such as that of the Kauri Timber Company in central Auckland. The identity of the building contractor for the Pegler residence is not known. James Logan of the well-known Devonport-based boat-building company, a local builder operating in a small speculative way, undertook a number of residential projects in the street in 1904. Houses of the era were predominantly erected from stock plans supplied by the timber companies or taken from plan books, and were principally built by small building firms employing two or three men. Subsequent use Harriet Pegler sold the property to Margaret Eliza Bramley (1876-1914) in 1903. The absence of a recorded mortgage suggests that Margaret may have had financial resources of her own. Margaret, her husband William Harry Bramley (1875-1948) and their two young sons became the new occupiers. By this time, the number of households in Glen Road had doubled to eight, the breadwinners predominantly in blue-collar occupations - mariner, shipwright, coach fitter, line-engineer. Although the Bramley family occupied the property for two decades, little is known of their life in Auckland. Harry, who gave his occupation as ‘gentleman’ or ‘settler’, became a member of the Auckland Kennel Club, and was elected to the executive of the Stanley Bay Ratepayers’ Association in 1921. From New Plymouth, the family were part of Taranaki’s Pakeha-settler social network. The couple had married in 1897 at Margaret’s parents’ farm at Tikorangi, an outlying rural settlement founded in 1865 by militia families led by Margaret’s father Captain John Henry Armstrong (c.1834-1915). Armstrong was the son of a Church of Ireland minister and from a family with a long military tradition. A number of Margaret’s uncles were captains in the Taranaki Militia. Harry Bramley had moved to Taranaki in the 1880s after the 1876 death of his father, a Rangiora farmer. Harry’s two sisters had married into prosperous families. Annie (1867?-1956) was a daughter-in-law of a late Superintendent of the Taranaki Province, Henry Robert Richmond (1829-90) of the influential Richmond-Atkinson family. Amy (1869-1947) was a daughter-in-law of a late Australian Premier and Colonial Secretary, Sir Charles Cowper (1807-75). Retaining the Glen Road home on one-and-a-half lots, Margaret Bramley sold Lot 132 fronting Russell Street in 1906. Margaret died prematurely, in 1914 three years after the birth of the couple’s third child. Staying on at Glen Road, Harry married Grace Eveline Sallabank (1874-1976) in 1917. Margaret and Harry’s three sons, including the eldest - Maurice (1898-1975), still lived at the house in 1918. Moving to Australia in the mid-1920s Maurice became a respected commercial artist and illustrator, working principally for what became Sun Newspapers and magazines including The World’s News. His poster ‘Join Us in a Victory Job,’ published in 1943 by the Department of National Service during the Second World War (1939-45), was reproduced as an Australian postage stamp in 1991. Cover illustrations produced from the early 1950s until the early 1970s for war, western and superhero comics are keenly collected today. A meticulous draughtsman, Bramley excelled with pen portraits of prominent war personalities, and took over illustration of Horwitz’s The Phantom Commando series shortly after commencement of the title in 1959. In 1923, Harry Bramley sold 14 Glen Road having taken out mortgages in 1919 and 1921. For the next three decades, the address was the family home of John William Dance (d.1952) and his wife Edith. Dance was involved in the establishment of Bricks Limited (1926), a Ngaruawahia-based brick-and-tile-making venture liquidated in 1930 during the Great Depression. Changing hands in 1953, the house was later rented out. A garage was erected at the front in 1967, by which time the two neighbouring houses had been demolished to expand Stanley Bay Primary School. The residence at 14 Glen Road avoided a similar fate in the 1970s when a planned residential development of Ngataringa Bay did not proceed. By this time the original kitchen and bathroom had been converted to a dining room and a store room respectively. A kitchen and a pantry occupied a rear verandah; and the bathroom and toilet, the lean-to bedroom. Reflecting a movement towards the gentrification of Auckland’s older suburbs and an emerging awareness of Devonport’s heritage in the 1970s, 14 Glen Road was one of 64 residences identified as representing the character and diversity of earlier Devonport. The property was purchased in 1974 by architect Jeremy Salmond and anthropologist Dr Anne Salmond. The house was blessed by Ngati Porou elder Eruera Stirling; Dr Salmond had worked with Eruera Stirling and his wife Amiria of the iwi Te Whanau-a-Apanui in the 1970s, producing three important anthropological works. These were Amiria: The Life Story of a Maori Woman, (1976); Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gatherings, (1976); and, Eruera: The Teachings of a Maori Elder, (c, 1980). Conservation of the villa commenced in 1974-5. French doors were added from the living, dining (original kitchen) and rear bedroom to new verandahs. The run-down state of the makeshift kitchen and bathroom resulted in remodelling undertaken in 1980. A modest dining room extension provided for family living; and an en suite bedroom was developed within an expanded roof space. Two outbuildings were demolished, although the privy was retained. The 1994 construction of a garage with loft enabled the eventual removal of the 1960s garage. By Jeremy Salmond’s own account, the need to understand the house, the dimensions of timber, proportions of windows and doors, and the classical language of mouldings, substantially contributed to his knowledge as a professional heritage architect. During this period Jeremy’s book, Old New Zealand Houses 1800-1940 (1986) was published. The first in-depth study of development of the New Zealand house, the book became the recognised authority on matters of style, form and materials in vernacular domestic architecture. It was published at a time when the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) was consciously classifying examples of typical houses as well as those considered special because of historical association or unusual architectural skill in design. The villa at 14 Glen Road subsequently featured in several photographs illustrating Di Stewart’s history, The New Zealand Bay Villa: Past and Present (1992); and was captured by noted architectural photographer Patrick Reynolds in Villa: From Heritage to Contemporary (2009) to which Jeremy Salmond also contributed. Through their professional lives, writing, and representation on various bodies, including the NZHPT, the Salmonds were to make a major contribution to development and understanding of the nation’s cultural and historic heritage. Anne, a Distinguished Professor in Maori Studies at the University of Auckland whose further written works include Two Worlds: First Meetings Between Maori and Europeans 1642-1772, (1991); and, Between Worlds: Early Exchanges Between Maori and Europeans 1773-1815 (1996), was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire for Services to New Zealand History in 1995. In 2007 Jeremy Salmond, a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, was made a member of the Queen’s Service Order for services to conservation of historic heritage. The property remains in private ownership.
Context The house at 14 Glen Road is located at Stanley Bay, Devonport a marine suburb on Auckland’s North Shore. Devonport is surrounded by the Waitemata Harbour to its east, south and west, and is noted for its picturesque, waterfront setting and its well-preserved heritage which includes a large number of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings, and other cultural remnants. The house at 14 Glen Road is situated in west Devonport, on the Stanley Bay peninsula. Stanley Bay is predominantly residential, but also contains the headquarters of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Calliope Dock, part of the naval base, is said to have been the largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere when opened in 1888. Immediately adjoining the naval base, at 95 Calliope Road is St Augustine’s Church (Anglican) (Register No. 504, Category 2 historic place). The residence at 14 Glen Road lies within an area of predominantly early twentieth-century housing. Glen Road is a short thoroughfare linking Calliope and River View Roads which overlook Stanley Bay to the south and Ngataringa Bay to the north respectively. Notable dwellings in the wider neighbourhood include houses at 115, 126 and 152A Calliope Road; 27 William Bond Street; 6 Summer Street; 27, 39 and 41 Stanley Point Road; and, 14-14A and 18-20 Huia Street (Register Nos. 4528 and 4527, Category 2 historic places). A number of other historic places have been formally recognised through NZHPT registration in Devonport, including the Holy Trinity Church (Anglican) (Register No. 504, Category 2 historic place) constructed in the early 1880s. Others in or near Victoria Road, the suburb’s main commercial thoroughfare, include the Esplanade Hotel (Register No. 4481, Category 1 historic place), the Victoria Theatre (Register No. 7712, Category 1 historic place), the former Bank of New Zealand (Register No. 4511, Category 2 historic place) and Post Office (Register No. 4510, Category 2 historic place); and a number of commemorative monuments including the First World War Memorial (Register No. 4515, Category 2 historic place), the Alison Clock (Register No. 4513, Category 2 historic place) and the Coronation Sea Wall (Register No. 4516, Category 2 historic place). The suburb’s military connections are recognised in fortifications at North Head - Takapuna (Register No. 7005, Category 1 historic place) and, further afield, at Fort Takapuna - O Peretu (Register No. 86, Category 1 historic place). O Peretu (Register No. 7231, wahi tapu area) is a site of ancient historic, cultural and spiritual significance, and is of particular significance to Ngati Paoa. The site The rectangular site lies on the east side of the thoroughfare. Properties in the vicinity are predominantly occupied by early twentieth-century timber villas, although the Stanley Bay Primary School adjoins the side (north) and the rear boundaries of 14 Glen Road. The site slopes up from a low timber retaining wall on the front boundary. The property is one-and-a-half sites wide, affording a generous setting. An immense pohutukawa, one of five scheduled trees (three pohutukawa; two puriri) appears to date from the early decades of the twentieth century and largely screens the house from the street. The property is occupied by four buildings. The turn of the century villa incorporating late twentieth-century additions lies well back from the front boundary. Abutting the north (side) boundary towards the rear of the site is a small outdoor privy (1901-2). A timber garden shed (1994) occupies the rear (northeast) corner. Within the corresponding southeast corner is a substantial timber-framed garage (1994) served by a driveway (1982) through a spacious side garden. A footpath leads from the gate at the northwest corner of the property, along the north side of the grounds and branches across in front of the verandah. The front verandah steps are of timber and replace original plastered steps (demolished by 1960) which incorporated flared wing walls and a pair of rectangular pedestals. The house, an early-Edwardian timber villa of striking appearance, is positioned well back on the site. The generous front garden is a notable contrast with the site layout commonly associated with late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century urban residences which were traditionally positioned to allow a small front garden and a large rear garden. The front third of the property is laid out in a lawn forming a plateau below the house. A tree located on the north embankment of the driveway may be a specimen from an earlier garden. The driveway entrance is situated near the southwest corner of the property, coinciding with the general location of the former front gate and footpath. A large plum tree located to the rear of the house may have been planted shortly after the home was built. House Exterior The moderately large, single-storey, centre-gutter villa is of a return bay type and incorporates a turreted corner, a Queen Anne-style feature found on many New Zealand corner bay villas. The building is of timber construction with plain weatherboard cladding. The corrugated metal roof is broken by two brick chimneys. The west (front) elevation retains its early twentieth-century appearance. The south side elevation is little altered - apart from an early bay window addition. The rear (east) and north elevations have been substantially modified by alterations and additions undertaken in 1975 and 1980. The spacious setting enhances the visually striking front and south elevations of which the turreted corner bay is an eye-catching shared feature. The angled bay of the Glen Road façade incorporates a handsome gable form suggestive of an open-bed pediment. Subtle dentils along the base of the gable also allude to the Classical, and possibly foreshadow the plain block patterning found in the California bungalow style popular in New Zealand after 1910. The corner brackets of the angled bay terminate in a single orb, a feature repeated on the verandah brackets. The south corner of the façade ends in the octagonal, shallow-turreted bay. The contrasting bay windows are linked by a verandah notable for a Classical balustrade and timber posts finished with finely carved Corinthian capitals. The front door has patterned clear glazing in the upper panel; and red or green glass in the rectangular fan-light and side-lights. French doors opening onto the front verandah are a surviving original feature. The roofs of the bay windows and the south hip terminate in a substantial conical finial. The shafts of the two red-brick chimneys have a contrasting base and top of cream brickwork. The chimney tops are raked and incorporate subtle corbelling. On the south (side) elevation, the master bedroom (original drawing room) projects slightly, a detail reinforced by the corner turret. A square bay with double hung sash windows is believed to be an early addition. A narrow double hung sash window in the rear bedroom dates from 1980. The east (rear) and north (side) elevations have been modified as result of: the rebuilding and enlargement of the area formerly occupied by a circa mid-twentieth century kitchen and bathroom (originally a verandah and part of the third bedroom); and an associated one-room extension (1980, north east corner). The sash windows of the original dining room and kitchen (north elevation) and the rear bedroom (east elevation), have been replaced by French doors opening onto new verandahs (1975). The roof has been modified by conversion of the rear hip (north side) into an extended gable accommodating an attic bedroom en suite. The back verandah incorporates a gabled porch roof, evidently an original feature that has been extended. Interior Internally, the house is organised around a wide central hall. There are two bedrooms and a study off the south side. A living room with connected sitting room; a passage leading to the kitchen and dining area; and a bathroom, open off the hall’s north side. The hall arch has a pair of scrolled truss brackets, an original detail. An early electrical fuse box and meter is also a surviving feature. Mechanisms for opening fan lights above the front and back hall doors remain operational. Kauri floor boards, board and batten ceilings, timber joinery including architraves, skirting boards and four-panel doors survive throughout the house. Where new openings have been introduced (in the lounge and sitting room for example) joinery mouldings have been made using recreated pattern knives. The main reception rooms - the formal lounge (former dining room) with a connecting sitting room (original kitchen) - are located off the north side of the hall. French doors opening north from both rooms are a 1975 alteration. The rooms have back-to-back fireplaces. The early twentieth-century fire surround in the front room has decorative tiles, a modern gas fire register and a tiled hearth and replaces an earlier fireplace. In the sitting room behind, a log-burner occupies a modified fireplace that formerly accommodated a coal range removed at an unknown date. A tall kauri mantelpiece has been reinstated. The timber tongue and groove dado of the original kitchen has been extended across a section where a hall door was removed (1975). The sitting room opens into a modern open-plan kitchen. The kitchen occupying a former side porch and rear verandah drops down to a dining room addition (1980). The kitchen and dining area has exposed beams, timber lining and joinery constructed from demolition kauri / rimu. A short passage linking the kitchen to the central hall has been created in a former lean-to bedroom, the remainder of which has been converted into the current bathroom. On the west side of the passage, a timber staircase (original bathroom) accesses an upstairs bedroom en suite (1980) which has exposed timber beams and matchlined ceiling. On the ground floor, off the south side of the hall, are the master bedroom (original drawing room with a reinstated fireplace), a study, and a bedroom. The original French doors open from the master bedroom, onto the front verandah. The board and batten ceiling runs continuously through into the corner turret. A centrally-located ceiling rose incorporates simple timber fretwork vents. The study (former master bedroom) has a south-facing square-bay - an early addition - with generous double-hung sash windows on three sides. The rear bedroom is lit by a narrow double hung sash window (south wall) and French doors onto the rear verandah (1975). Like other rooms, it has a board and batten ceiling and comparatively simple joinery. Privy (circa 1901-2) The privy is a tiny structure with vertical board and batten cladding, and a gable roof of corrugated metal. Substantial repairs have been necessary over the years. The interior was not viewed, but includes a cast iron cistern - an original fitting. Garage and garden shed (1994) The double garage is a timber-frame building on a concrete slab and has a corrugated metal roof. The gable roof accommodates an attic with a north-facing dormer. A single-storey valance lean-to extends across the rear of the building and partially along both sides. The garden shed is a small gable-roofed timber structure and has a casement window in one side wall. The interiors of these buildings were not viewed.
Completion Date
10th October 2012
Report Written By
Joan McKenzie
Information Sources
Musgrove, 1986
Sydney Musgrove (ed), The Hundred of Devonport: A Centennial History, Devonport, 1986.
Salmond, 1986
Jeremy Salmond, Old New Zealand Houses 1800-1940, Auckland, 1986, Reed Methuen
Stewart, 1992 (2002)
Di Stewart, The New Zealand Villa Past and Present, Auckland, 1992 (2002)
Verran, 2010
Verran, David, The North Shore: An Illustrated History, Auckland, 2010
Reynolds, Hansen and Salmond, 2009
Reynolds, Patrick, Jeremy Hansen and Jeremy Salmond, Villa: From Heritage to Contemporary, Auckland, 2009
Report Written By
A fully referenced registration report is available from the NZHPT Northern Region Office. This place is included in other heritage listings. The reference is Auckland Council, CHI, Computer No. 2425 Building - Dwelling Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.
Current Usages
Uses: Accommodation
Specific Usage: House
Former Usages
General Usage:: Accommodation
Specific Usage: House
Themes
Of Significance to Maori