EARLY HISTORY OF ONEHUNGA:
From possibly as early as the fourteenth century, the Onehunga area was occupied by Ngati Tahuhu, a group descended from the Tainui canoe. Te Waiohua later became the dominant iwi in the Auckland isthmus, occupying several pa sites including a major complex at Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill), approximately a kilometre to the northeast of the Pleasant Villa site. In the 1740s, much of the isthmus was conquered by Ngati Whatua, and occupied by them until New Zealand became a British colony in 1840. During the so-called Musket Wars of the early 1800s, Ngati Whatua evidently maintained a small settlement at Onehunga, near the foot of Princes Street. Recorded Maori sites in the general landscape around the Pleasant Villa site include a settlement and middens along the historical foreshore of the Manukau Harbour, now occupied by Beechcroft Avenue, and a cluster of middens away from the shoreline in the vicinity of upper Onehunga Mall.
Soon after formal colonisation, land purchased from Maori by individual European settlers was requisitioned by the colonial government for the establishment of a quasi-military 'fencible' settlement. Strategically located beside the large Manukau Harbour, Onehunga was founded in 1847 as the first of four settlements that collectively formed a protective buffer between the colonial capital at Auckland and Maori-occupied land in the Waikato. Onehunga soon became the main colonial port on the Manukau, receiving incoming goods from Maori and exporting European products in return. As the second largest entrepôt on the Auckland isthmus, the town formed a base for colonial expansion during the Third New Zealand - or Waikato - War (1863-4) and subsequently benefited from servicing European settlement in the Waikato and elsewhere. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had developed into a prosperous industrial and mercantile centre, although its maritime role was gradually eroded by rail and road transport, and by its proximity to Auckland.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE SITE:
Located on the northeastern outskirts of the 1847 fencible settlement, the land occupied by Pleasant Villa was initially the western part of a 0.4 hectare (1 acre) block granted by the Crown to Thomas Lucas (1811-1883) in August 1858. Lucas was a military settler of Irish origin who had arrived in Onehunga in 1852 after serving in the East Indies with the 31st Regiment. Land allocations were made to military settlers such as Lucas as part of an inducement to protect and develop the new colonial town. It is currently uncertain if Lucas erected a house on the site, although five years after his death his widow Ellen took out a mortgage (1888) secured by 'hereditaments and premises' on the land.
In 1890, the site later to be occupied by Pleasant Villa was purchased by Maria Kearney, wife of an Auckland storeman Richard Kearney. In 1897, it was onsold at a profit. The purchaser was William Kemp (1841-1906), who had previously bought the eastern half of Lucas' original 0.4 hectare block in 1866 and probably also two adjoining 0.4 ha (one acre) blocks immediately to the east to create a 1.2 ha (3 acre) holding.
WILLIAM KEMP AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF PLEASANT VILLA:
William Kemp's purchase was one of many he undertook in the eastern part of Onehunga as the town expanded. Kemp was a noted Onehunga bricklayer and builder, who had migrated to New Zealand with his wife Sarah (1838-1907) from London in 1864. Trained as a stonemason and bricklayer at King's Cross, his apprenticeship is reported to have involved working on the Tower of London, one of the British capital's most significant medieval buildings. One of Kemp's first jobs on arrival in Auckland was quarrying and dressing stone steps for a grand new post office in Shortland Street. Other new migrants working as masons on the project included Anton Teutenberg (1840-1933), who carved elaborate corbels and gargoyles for this building and other Gothic Revival showpieces such as the Auckland Supreme Court (later the High Court, NZHPT Register # 17, Category I historic place).
Kemp soon moved to Onehunga, perhaps lured by its expansion as a commercial and industrial centre after the end of war in the Waikato. In the 1870s and later, he erected numerous important structures in the settlement and nearby. From the 1880s, he was joined in this enterprise by his son, William Kemp junior (1867/8-1939). Kemp senior undertook the masonry work on the Mercer railway tunnel and constructed numerous permanent culverts along the Auckland-Waikato railway. A prominent member of the local Catholic church and the Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit Society (HABCS), he also supervised the building of the brick Church of the Assumption, Onehunga (NZHPT Register # 523, Category II historic place) in 1887-9 assisted by his sons. Other buildings attributed to him include a brick shop for Joseph Jackson (1885) and the brickwork of the first Auckland Savings Bank established in Onehunga. At the turn of the century, approximately 6 percent of buildings in Auckland were of brick, stone or concrete, and nationally, the number of brickworks and brickwork employees peaked in 1907. Most brick buildings in the region were erected of materials produced by brickyards in West Auckland. It is said that Kemp was particularly noted for his ornamental brickwork.
Kemp also erected several brick houses on his own account, for letting or occupation by himself or his family. These included The Grottos (also known as Grottoes) in Heretaunga Avenue which was his residence in the 1880s and possibly earlier, the Tower House in Church Street which was his residence from 1890 to 1905, and two or more detached cottages in Grotto Street. The buildings were all located in the eastern part of Onehunga, close to the site chosen for the construction of a new residence for himself and his wife at Pleasant Villa.
The new site occupied a basalt knoll, on high ground overlooking Kemp's earlier properties. The area initially associated with the residence lay at the intersection of Grey Street and Mays Road, two of the more important thoroughfares in the eastern part of late nineteenth-century Onehunga. The single-storey house was built after purchase of the site in 1897 and before 1905, when Kemp is recorded as the building's first occupant. It is likely to have been erected in circa 1904. Kemp's son Thomas (1870-1950), a farmer and possibly occasional bricklayer also started living on an adjacent plot by the same year (1905). It is possible that Thomas Kemp was engaged in market gardening on the larger holding to the east of Pleasant Villa, perhaps in conjunction with his father who was also noted as a farmer with a particular interest in fruit-growing. Following earlier Maori gardening practice in the area, market gardening was carried out on fertile volcanic soils in Onehunga from its early development as a fencible settlement, and was subsequently also undertaken by Chinese populations in the early 1900s.
Evidently known as Pleasant Villa from the outset, the new residence was built almost entirely of brick and had a slate roof. Incorporating ornate brickwork in its chimneys and elsewhere it is likely to have been built, and perhaps designed, under Kemp's supervision with the assistance of William Kemp junior and possibly other family members such as Thomas Kemp. William Kemp junior was a builder in his own right, subsequently responsible for the construction of Onehunga's Catholic Presbytery in 1906, and also involved in the erection of the Carnegie Public Library (NZHPT Register # 4796, Category I historic place) in 1912. He also went on to erect several brick villas near Pleasant Villa following the precedent set by his father, including his own house at Emerald Hill in Mays Road (1909), a large bay villa in Alfred Street (circa 1910), and probably a large villa of brick on the corner of Grotto and Alfred Streets and a similar pair of adjacent single-storey houses in Grotto Street (all post 1908).
Of corner-bay design, the main residence at Pleasant Villa was carefully sited on the southern part of its plot to not only be visible from the lower slopes of eastern Onehunga but also as the terminal view when approaching from central Onehunga along Grey Street. With its two main elevations facing Mays Road and Grey Street, it can be seen to have advertised Kemp's skill as a bricklayer and builder, and pride in his trade. The villa's visual appearance was made additionally prominent through the use of a distinctive and ornate Gothic Revival style, which incorporated steep gables containing large shields bearing the initials 'NZI'. The precise meaning and origins of the shields is currently uncertain, although they are said to refer to New Zealand Industries and to have been given to William Kemp senior by a local business. Several New Zealand Industry exhibitions were held in New Zealand during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a way of promoting local goods and expertise, with the first in Auckland being the Industrial and Mining Exhibition of 1898.
Gothic Revival style extended to other parts of the structure, such as through the use of clay tiled flooring for the verandah and internal hearths. More unusually, ashlar-scored plaster in the main entrance hall above wainscote level created an appearance of exposed stonework, in imitation of a medieval hall. The house interior was not large and was of a relatively standard layout. It incorporated a central hallway with flanking parlour and front bedroom, a dining room at the end of an L-shaped extension to the hall, two smaller rooms - possibly both bedrooms or a bedroom and office - and a rear kitchen. A separate washhouse and toilet was located to the east of the main structure, similarly constructed in brick. This also had an ornamental brick chimney and slate roof, and additionally incorporated terracotta cresting and finials of striking design. A timber shed in the south-eastern corner of the property, later removed, may also have been erected at this time. Both brick buildings incorporated large basalt thresholds stones, which were in keeping with the ashlar appearance of the main hallway. The solid appearance of the buildings may have been enhanced through the use of basalt stone walls surrounding the property.
Primarily used for domestic dwellings in the nineteenth rather than early twentieth century, Kemp's employment of Gothic Revival may partly be linked to his working experience on medieval monuments in Britain and Gothic-influenced buildings in New Zealand such as the Shortland Street Post Office. Major British proponents of Gothic Revival before Kemp departed for New Zealand also emphasised the desirability of fostering artisan crafts such as stonemasonry. Gothic Revival was particularly associated with religious buildings and was extensively used by the Catholic Church in Auckland in the late nineteenth century, including for the Church of the Assumption, which Kemp had erected. Other stylistic details within the house allude to Kemp's affiliations. The repeated use of a trefoil or shamrock design on the building's exterior and interior may be associated with the strong Irish connections of Auckland's Catholic Church and Kemp's role in the Onehunga Branch of the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society (HACBS), of which he was a long-term treasurer.
The house is likely to have been one of the last structures for which William Kemp senior was responsible as he died while living there in January 1906. He was buried inside the west wing of Church of the Assumption, where he lay alongside the remains of Bishop John Luck (1840-1896) and Monsignor James Paul (d.1906), a Vicar General of the Auckland Diocese. Kemp's prominent place of burial reinforces the view that he was a notable individual within the local Catholic church. Kemp's obituary stated that ‘he was the confidant of the later Monsignor James Paul' in relation to construction of the church, ‘took a keen interest in all local matters' and ‘was one of the best known and respected residents in the district'.
Kemp's wife, Sarah, died shortly afterwards in 1907, also at Pleasant Villa.
SUBSEQUENT USE AND MODIFICATIONS:
Ownership of Pleasant Villa subsequently passed to Thomas Kemp. After an initial year when the house was occupied by Kemp senior's son-in-law Clarence Le Marquand, the residence was evidently rented out to a series of tenants, including William Tapp (1909-12), possibly a retired farmer, and Thomas McGuire, plumber (1915-22). From circa 1924 to 1930, the property was occupied by Thomas Kemp himself, when he appears to have been in financial difficulties as the Great Depression descended. In 1930, the property was sold to George Black, a retired builder.
Changes following the sale included the provision of mains sewerage. Alterations may also have encompassed the creation of an internal bathroom and combined pantry/scullery, the provision of a shingled skirt to the verandah, and the subdivision of the brick washhouse into two smaller rooms. An early external door to the toilet may also have been blocked and a new one inserted. The main residence may also have been externally plastered with a cement-based render at this time to provide a more ‘modern' appearance, and the basalt wall along the Grey Street frontage replaced by a timber paling fence for the same reasons. . The house was subsequently rented to a series of annual tenants up to the outbreak of the Second World War including John Rist (1932-3) and Les Speed (1933-4), both Post and Telegraphic service employees, Fred McCarthy, labourer (1935-6), John Cavanagh, plumber (1936-7) and Les Laing (1938-9). From 1941, the property was rented by a clerk, William Stewart, who occupied the building with his wife Doris for several decades.
In 1949, the property on which Pleasant Villa had been erected was subdivided, symptomatic of the growing intensification of Onehunga's outskirts as land between it and other settlements on the Auckland isthmus were infilled. The villa was consequently divorced from its original Mays Road frontage, although its more notable aspect to Grey Street was retained. In 1958, the reduced parcel was purchased by the Stewarts, who appear to have made very few substantial changes other than constructing a timber passageway between the residence and brick washhouse. Prior to 1966, more minor changes had included the insertion of a formica bench in the combined pantry/scullery, and a new bath and hand basin in the bathroom. The copper in the washhouse was probably also removed. Doris Stewart remained in the house until 1989, when the property was purchased by Landmark Incorporated. Landmark, an independent incorporated society whose purpose was to preserve New Zealand's heritage, had been formed in 1972 by a group of planners, lawyers, architects and engineers in recognition that large-scale urban redevelopment in the 1970s had the potential to destroy as yet unrecognised historic buildings. The first building to be purchased by Landmark was the former Council Chambers and Fire Station building in Grey Lynn, Auckland (NZHPT Register # 572, Category II historic place).
Limited modifications by Landmark have since included removing the added washhouse partition and modernising the bathroom and kitchen. The ashlared plasterwork in the main hall was revealed and replaced by a copy where it had deteriorated. In 1998 a small area of 15 m², incorporating part of the former washhouse that encroached onto adjoining land, was purchased and added to the same holding. The property remains in private residential use.