Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

The following text is from an Upgrade Report 16 November 2011: In the late 1850s as pastoralists followed the Waitaki River inland along routes long established by Ngai Tahu new areas were opened up as vast runs. Around the area of what is now Kurow was Run 28, known as Otekaieke, which covered the area between Otekaieke and Kohurau (later named Kurow) Streams. It was first licensed in 1854, and in 1857 was owned by W.H. Dansey (after whom nearby Dansey’s Pass is named). By 1865 Robert Campbell had taken over Otekaieke. An 1861 survey plan shows the land on which the accommodation house was later built was an outstation on Dansey’s Run with two structures on the block. Christian Hille (d.1895) was an early boundary keeper and shepherd on the Otekaieke Run. German-born Hille had arrived in New Zealand in 1854 and landed in Dunedin before travelling overland to Oamaru. Hille worked for Dansey for four years before establishing an accommodation house, known as the Western Inn and later the Western Hotel. Deeds indicate that Hille acquired the land from Robert Campbell in 1865; though it is clear Hille occupied it earlier. Located close to the confluence of the Kurow and Waitaki Rivers Hille took up ferry keeping and opened a general store. Hille reportedly ran the Hotel for seven years (until around 1868) before leaving for a time, transferring the license to his brother in law Henry Schulter, and then returning. His was one of the early accommodation houses set up on this inland route - there were others at Otematata and Maerewhenua. Rev. E. Simeon Elwell described the first accommodation house as consisting of three ground floor rooms (a kitchen and bar, sitting room and side room) and two bedrooms, one for Christian and his wife and the other for travellers. The house was timber. In December 1870 a fire started in servant Elizabeth McIntosh’s bedroom. The alarm was raised and McIntosh escaped but efforts made to dowse the fire failed and the conflagration spread. According to newspaper reports the ‘centre portion’ of the building was ‘completely destroyed.’ Other parts were undamaged, and the associated stabling came through the fire unscathed. The hotel was rebuilt though no reports have been found describing the reconstruction. Later owners the McBeaths provide a description of the layout of the Hotel: five bedrooms on the upper floor (with others added as the family grew), a ground floor with kitchen, large dining and general room and a bar room, and some forty metres away the meat store and general food store. A barn and water wheel-driven chaff cutter stood nearby. An orchard and gardens were developed and water was brought via a race from the Kurow River. There were stables and a woolshed as well. The stone was quarried from Grant’s Road near Otiake Creek. The foundations were 380mm thick, and the exterior walls 300mm thick to ceiling height and 200mm above. The floors were Baltic pine. With the construction of a bridge across the Waitaki River to Hakataramea in 1881, the punt service was no longer required and passing traffic tended to pause at the Kurow township a little to the north west. The number of hotel guests declined and this lead to the closure of the Hotel, though the actual date of closure is uncertain, though the license was transferred to the Kurow Hotel (in Kurow itself) in 1882. After Christian Hille’s death, his 1,294 acre estate was taken over by his son William Gustave Hille at which time it became known as Westmere. In William Hille’s entry in the Cyclopedia of Otago and Southland, the Hotel is described as the ‘original homestead’ on the estate that had been used as a ‘public house.’ In 1900 William Hille built a water wheel to power a chaff cutter which provided fodder for New Zealand horses at the South African campaign and for the local trade. It also drove seed cleaning gear and a shearing machine. Though replaced by a combustion engine, it was re-commissioned during World War One when fuel was short. After 1922 it was largely unused. In 1910 the land on which the Hotel stands was transferred to Kurow farmer Alexander Hamilton Chapman, grandson of Christian Hille. A laundry and dairy were added in the 1920s. In the 1930s a bathroom and toilet were added. The property remained in the ownership of the extended Hille-Chapman family until the mid-1970s. Westmere remained a family home throughout the twentieth century. The water wheel was restored by the owners, with the support of the local community in 1990 with some funding from the 1990 Commission. In 2007 the property was purchased by the current owners who have opened it as a bed and breakfast, recalling its original roots it is known as Western House Bed and Breakfast.

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A fully referenced Upgrade Report is available from the Otago/Southland Area office of NZHPT. 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.