The Albert Park: The Albert Park Lodge was constructed in 1882 on land that was held under the Auckland Improvement (Albert Park Barracks) Act 1872. Legal title to the site of Auckland had been established in 1841. There is no indication that the land was a Maori pa site, although it is a short distance from Te Reuroa ('the long outer palisade'), a pa that occupied the land where the High Court now stands. By 1847 construction of Albert Barracks, the largest British military fortification in New Zealand, was underway. Following a decision of the Colonial Government in 1870 to abandon the barracks, 15 acres of the land was set aside as a ground for recreation and amusement. This occurred as the surrounding area became a focus for the construction of prestigious housing. The Auckland Improvement Commission initially administered the land that became Albert Park. In 1872, it held a landscape design competition for layout of the grounds. Neither of the two designs submitted was adopted. The auctioning of 93 building sites in 1875 on ninety-nine-year leaseholds led to the development of small precincts of grand merchant's villas such as those that survive further along Princes Street, and provided capital for the development of Albert Park. In 1879, Auckland City Council assumed the responsibilities of the Commission and instituted a second design competition in 1881. The Council, which had come into being in 1871, had inherited 'not a single park' from the City Board that it replaced, and expressed the hope that the spot should be a public garden which 'would offer splendid sites for the statues which [were] sure to be erected some day or other to local or colonial patriots'. Disregarding a petition that part of the park be laid out for organised sport, the Council modified the winning design submitted by James Slator and William Clark Goldie. Goldie (c.1847-1926) was later to become the Council's first Superintendent of Parks in 1894, a position he held until 1908. In July 1881 tenders were called for a concrete wall and perimeter fencing and by the following February construction of the park had begun in earnest. Construction of the Albert Park Lodge: Tenders were called for construction of the Park Lodge in May 1882, and by June the contract was let. The builders were Messrs Wrigley & Handcock, while the architect was British-born Henry Wade, who had recently designed commercial buildings in Auckland city centre, including the National Insurance Building in Queen Street. A detailed description of the house in the Weekly News noted that: 'The plans of the lodge about to be erected as a residence for the park-keeper in charge of Albert Park, show that the City Council are determined to make that official comfortable... The lodge, which is Gothic in style, and is to be thoroughly well-finished inside, consists of a parlour, two bed-rooms, and kitchen, pantry and scullery, with coal-shed and yard at rear. There is a verandah 17 feet in length and 5 feet wide, across part of the frontage. The parlour is lighted by a handsome bow-window...' The bay villa form adopted for the lodge was frequently used for provincial and central authority small house designs in the 1870s and 1880s, while an ornamental Gothic Revival style was often preferred for late nineteenth-century park lodges in Britain. Ornate architectural styles were considered to add visual interest and an element of exoticism, which complemented the associated gardens. The lodge was completed by September 1882 and had a double fireplace, which survives today, although two distinctive Boyd's ornamental chimney pots that graced its roof were stolen in 1988. A corrugated iron fence six feet high gave privacy to the yard, adjacent to which were separate out-offices for the lodge, and for the park workmen who also had shedding for tools. Water was laid on to the out-offices, and to the scullery in the lodge. Applications were invited from landscape gardeners for the office of park-keeper and a Mr W. Boston was appointed. The lodge was finished and handed over to Mr Boston for occupation by the end of September 1882 so that 'he would be able to keep a stricter look-out by his residence in the grounds, on the depredations of the larrikins, and the trespass of horses and cattle in the park.' Fear of public disorder, or worse, in parks was a frequent concern in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is unclear if Mr Boston took up the offer of occupation, but William Wells, one of the Council's first permanent senior gardeners (who had been taken on in 1881), lived in the house until his death in January 1888. Subsequent use: For the next 20 years (until 1908) the lodge became the rent-free home of Edward Shillington (1835?-1920) and his family. Shillington was the first city librarian, and worked a short distance away across the park in what is now the City Art Gallery building. At that time, this building was effectively the city hall, housing the library, art gallery, mayor's office and other official rooms. The lodge was enlarged in 1908, and apart from the construction of an office addition at the southwest corner ten years later, attained the external form it has today. The alterations of 1908 involved construction of an internal bathroom/toilet, relocation of the kitchen to facilitate installation of a gas stove, and construction of an attached laundry out-building with copper and tubs. The new century had brought a growing awareness of unsatisfactory conditions in housing in the city. A series of articles published in the New Zealand Herald in 1903, had brought to light the existence of working class houses in which there were no cooking ranges (merely a small colonial oven), no cupboards, no wash-houses and no backyards. While the residence of the Parks Superintendent in its idyllic setting would have been a far remove from those described by the Herald (one of the out-buildings having been converted to a bathroom by the installation of a thirty-shilling bath in 1888 ), calls for more stringent enforcement of building and sanitary by-laws may have made the Council particularly keen to ensure that the amenities it provided in its own staff housing in Auckland's most prominent park, were to a satisfactory standard. After Shillington, the lodge became the home of several Park Superintendents, or Directors of Parks and Reserves as they were known after 1919. Thomas Pearson (1835-1930), who lived in the house from 1913 until his death there in January 1930, was a person of significance in the history of parks and gardens development in New Zealand. At the time of his appointment in 1908 as Auckland City's Superintendent of Parks, Pearson was the Government's most senior landscape gardener and was responsible for the design and management of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts' parks and reserves at Rotorua, Te Aroha, Hanmer Springs and Queenstown. The son of a Staffordshire nurseryman, Pearson had prior to coming to New Zealand, spent two years working in a nursery in Philadelphia followed by a period of employment in the gardens of the Governor at Hobart. Upon taking up his position as Superintendent in Auckland, Pearson had (in addition to work in the existing parks) laid out Parnell Park and transformed the 'ugly gully' behind the Town Hall into Myers Park. He was also responsible for the layout and beautification of the zoo in Western Springs Park. He is said to have regarded improvement of the area round the Auckland War Memorial Museum in the Domain as the climax of his work in Auckland. In 1915 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. After Pearson's death, George Fillmore and his family became the lodge's tenants, followed by Frank Fillmore who lived there for a 15-year period commencing in the mid-1950s. The cottage eventually became the parks office for the Hobson-Eastern Bays Area. In 1995 the building was refurbished for the clock collection bequeathed to the City by local philanthropist Bruce Wilkinson, when some modifications were made. The yard area to the rear of the building still provides facilities for the Council's parks department.